Posted on 13 Comments

A crafty tale

Once upon a time there was an artsy-craftsy geek-girl who was planning a four-day weekend in the Boston area.  She was just learning to crochet.  She had also recently read a glowing review of a new fabric and yarn shop in Cambridge.  These three facts came together in a craftacular way, as you might imagine…

365 day 201 - Decisions, decisions

First, she chose an attractive project out of Crochet Adorned – The Floral Motif Yoke Top, with it’s crocheted shoulders and fabric body was just the thing.  She eagerly dragged her less-than-enthusiastic boys out of the hotel and off to Cambridge to check out gather here in person and choose her supplies.  Half an hour later, they emerged from the store, the crafty girl clutching her shopping bag with glee, and the boys feeling even less enthusiastic than before.

Don’t worry about those boys.  Far more interesting to this story is the contents of the bag: one skein of Cascade Ultra Pima Cotton in Natural, some yardage of Anna Maria Horner’s Little Folks voile, and some of Michelle Bencsko’s organic Nature Walk as well.  (What can I say? she couldn’t decide between the two! And, in fact, had you been there, you’d have been impressed at the restraint that only buying two fabrics entailed.)

Cozy corner in the hotel

Back at the hotel, she found herself a cozy corner and started in on those flower motifs.  Four days, one five hour car trip, two loads of laundry, one sink full of dishes, and a surprisingly small amount of cursing later, the yoke was complete.

Yoke finished!

And, oh, how impressed she was to see what she had accomplished in such a relatively short time!  And with much more ease than she could have possibly imagined.  Yes, there were some difficulties, but nothing too terrible, and nothing that wouldn’t get easier with each successive project.  This was the tricky phase of the Flower Motif Yoke Top, and it was complete.  What a relief!

The most difficult remaining step was to make a decision about fabric…

Still can't pick a fabric

She hemmed, she hawed, she polled her Twitter followers… and then she went against the consensus of the Twitter followers when she realized she actually did have her own strong opinion on the subject.

The front

And so, the crafty girl’s first crochet project was complete.  And she was oh, so pleased!

The back

Even the back was lovely with its pretty red button.  She could hardly wait to put it on and wear it all afternoon!

And, indeed she did put the shirt on.  But she didn’t wear it all afternoon…

Uh oh.

Uh oh.  Perhaps she should have made the straps a wee bit shorter.  Or even a whole lot shorter.  The crafty girl’s lovely shirt, as it turned out, had a multitude of fit issues, but I am happy to report that she is not in the least bit discouraged.

Perhaps some day soon there will be a sequel to our tale – one in which our heroine performs delicate shirt surgery and emerges victorious, brandishing a garment with which she can live happily ever after.

Wait, did I say “perhaps”? I meant “absolutely definitely!”

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Posted on 13 Comments

13 thoughts on “A crafty tale

  1. So cute! And a job well done, even if too revealing!

    1. Thank you – I do really like it, and it turns out I was able to save it with a few modifications!

  2. What a lovely gift for one of your friends – and ahead of time!!! I’m short in measurement from shoulder to bust, so that happens to me a lot. I hope you will have another go as it does suit you.

    1. I was actually able to mess around with it, and fix what was too big – it looks so much better on me now. Next time I will know to crochet several fewer rows in the shoulders, and go down a size in the fabric section 🙂

  3. It happens to the best of us. I bet you learned a lot from this and your next go will be a winner!

    1. I did learn quite a bit, as a matter of fact, so it was a definite success in that regard!

  4. That is so cute and looks very comfortable!!

    1. Thank you, it is comfy, particularly now that I’ve fixed the parts that bothered me 🙂

  5. I’m amazed that you can just pick it up and read it and make it. I was impressed when you picked up knitting that way. you go girl!
    As for the strap, since it isn’t the decorative part of the shirt, give it a seam on the ol’ sewing machine. then you can show off that shirt good and proper!

    1. That’s exactly what I did! I haven’t seen yet how it will fare in the wash, but it did just great out on the town tonight 🙂
      As for picking it up quickly, that kind of surprises me, too, given how many times I tried to learn to knit or crochet before and failed miserably! Something must have “clicked” somewhere along the line.

  6. RT @lclarke522: A crafty tale http://t.co/3e1hNCr

  7. […] fabric is Michelle Bencsko’s Nature Walk, which is a nice organic cotton that I used on my crochet top earlier this […]

  8. […] fabric is Michelle Bencsko’s Nature Walk, which is a nice organic cotton that I used on my crochet top earlier this […]

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