My Monthly Make - Lee's Sweater
I am so excited to share with you my monthly make for February. Call me crazy, but this short month I chose to make a sweater! I first saw this beautiful sweater when Lee from CoCoCrochetLee shared it on instagram. I immediately knew I had to make it and waited anxiously for the January issue of Happily Hooked Magazine to come out.
Lee has created an amazing pattern that is easily adjustable to fit many sizes. It calls for fingering weight yarn which was a little intimidating to work with, but so worth it. I used Woolike by Loops&Threads in beige which you can find at Michael's. I used 4 full skeins and about a 1/3 of the 5th skein to make an XL. I really loved this yarn because it comes with tons of yardage and easy on the wallet. It is also incredibly comfy and is machine washable.
I had a few mishaps with the creation of this sweater. When I first sat down to start I realized my gauge wasn't working out right and lo and behold I discovered that there are two sizes of G hook! Who knew? I sure didn't. Apparently there is a 4.0mm and a 4.5mm both called G hooks. Mine was a 4.5mm and the pattern calls for a 4.0mm. I ended up trying a gauge swatch with my F(3.75mm) hook at it got me the gauge I needed. But I still went out an bought myself a 4.0mm G hook so I would have one in the future.
Gauge is so important when working up a pattern so make sure that you always make your swatch before you start just in case you need to make adjustments to your hook size or tension.
After finding a hook that worked it was pretty much smooth sailing from there. I took this baby with me wherever I went and worked on it every spare moment I could find like when the kids fell asleep in the car. I just couldn't wait to get it finished!
I got a bit nervous when holding the pieces up because it seemed like it might end up a bit snug, but it ended up working out just fine.
The pattern is written so the back will end up a bit longer than the front, but I ended up making the front of mine a bit longer to make sure I had coverage over my mom tummy. When I sewed the side seams I thought that the back was still slightly longer than the front, but when I held it up I realized that one side had the front longer and one side had the back longer! Ah! I would suggest pinning your pieces together first to avoid this issue. At first I was just going to leave it, but I knew it would end up bugging me so I ripped out part of the side that was wrong and realigned it and sewed it in place. I must be really good at weaving in my ends because it took me a good 20 minutes just to get my original seam out.
While sewing up the side for the second time I had the idea of adding a bit more to the bottom. I ended up adding some ribbing along the bottom in the front and the back using the same technique Lee used for the collar and the cuffs. I am so in love with how it turned out.
Just look at all this cozy goodness. The sleeves are definitely my favorite part.
If you want to make your own Lee's Sweater you can grab a copy of Happily Hooked Magazine on Ravelry (it's in the January 2018 issue) or subscribe to get tons of amazing patterns every month!
You can find more patterns and inspiration from CoCoCrochetLee over on instagram or ravelry.
Thank you Lee for making such an amazing sweater! I learned so much while making this piece. I love that I have another item in my closet that I was able to make myself.
