May 25, 2015

V-neck Tunisian Vest

Since I still had a lot of questions left unanswered from my first attempt at tunisian crochet, I decided it might be a good idea to invest in a class. Recently I joined Craftsy, and they have a pretty wide selection of online classes, one of which was for learning how to make a Custom-Fit Tunisian Vest. I enrolled when it was on sale for half price!

I really liked the class and it help me with a lot of things:
- learning to increase and decrease in tunisian
- learning about ease
- learning to bind off in tunisian
- learning to read and alter patterns to fit ME!

The class was really helpful in understanding the break down of the construction of garments and taking measurements to see how it would fit. The video format means I can go back and watch it over and over.

You make a gauge swatch and then an armhole swatch before you start working to make sure you are hitting your correct measurements. After that you get into working the actual v-neck sweater.

I bought 6 skeins of Plymouth Yarns Encore Tweed in a blue called "Wedgewood White" to use for this project.

With only good things to say about the class, I expect now you want pictures of the finished vest... Well after working on the gauge swatch, I still could not figure out why my fabric was curling so very badly, and the width of the swatch was way off since I was making these giant loose chains like told to do. This is a type of crochet that clearly needs a lot more practice than half a scarf before diving into a vest.

In any case, I have decided not to make the vest and am looking for patterns to use the yarn. It is both a bummer and a new milestone for me. Something to reach for in the future, but not something that will help me make a totoro sweater any time soon, as is my ongoing desire.

I have hope that a new stitch, the "split single crochet", might be a new solution to knit-look crochet garb. Live and Learn, right?