Pattern: "cupcake" by Laura-Jean Bernhardson from the Happy Hooker book.
Yarn: Kool Kotton in coral. Ignore the stupid name - this stuff is great. It's a cheap 50/50 acrylic and cotton, so not a luxury yarn I grant you. But it's easy to use working up to a nice lightweight fabric that doesn't crease as much as cotton. I don't like working with 100% cotton above 4ply because I have a slight phobia of the way it feels when it pills* so this mix is great because it just takes the edge off.
Modifications: I did the bigger size but with a slightly smaller gage which I calculated should fit (because I'm a 38 inch chest and the pattern is written for 36 or 41 and a half), lengthened the body a bit to make it more of a tunic and omitted the ribbon round the neckline.
Opinion: A mix of good and bad. This is shot from a good angel, but straight on its a tad unflattering to the hips. This might well be down to my decision to lengthen, and I think I mis-calculated the re-gaging slightly because its a little baggy. However, I also wonder if dk-weight is a little too bulky for this sort of thing. The pattern is full of mistakes, but there are notes on the website and apart from these, its a fun easy crochet. The neckline is quite wide and droopy without the ribbon, but I like that - I love tops that fall off the shoulder a bit.
* Phobia is perhaps the wrong word. It makes my teeth go on edge in the same way some people get from nails on a black-board or a fork squeaking on a plate. I always had this problem with cotton wool. It makes my teeth feel like they are melting. Even the idea of it being torn makes me feel ill, in fact I'm squirming just typing about it. This always amuses the nurses when I give blood - I have no problem with the needles (or in one case, when the needle fell out and my blood spurted all over the bed, me and the nurse) but go white when they ask me to hold cotton wool to my skin before they put a plaster on. I realise that in this respect I may appear slightly eccentric but apparently its a reasonably common aversion, well there are others at least, I'm not a lone cotton-wool-hating-weirdo.
14 comments:
You are not alone--I hate the squeaky cotton ball! I have to use them to clean out my dog's ears every week, and I invariably get a nails-on-the-chalkboard squeak whenever I do. It makes me shudder just thinking about it.
Styrofoam makes my teeth ache.
everyone's got phobias, i'm sure of it! you're never alone there :)
i like this top! it's nice to see the crocheted SNB patterns making it onto knitting blogs.
I'd swap with you u see i go white (and cry, scream and run away) when faced with the needle for the blood test. The thing is i have no aversion to blood and am not sceamish at all, it is just the needles thing. But i do have a weird phobia chewing gum (esp spearmint flavour) it make me retch. I have been known to go to the back of a queue, or change queue in a shop because the someone has come and stood behind chewing spearmint gum.
I like the colour and it looks cool, pretty and summery so well done.
I hate cotton wool too - what about wet cotton wool though, don't mind that so much
I'm not keen on kniting with cotton, just beacuse it has little give. Hmm... might have to look closer at Happy Hookers, as I've been thinking of a top similar in shape to your one. There's some lovely egyptian cotton 4ply in my stash that is just too good to waste, so maybe it's time to get over my cotton thing... It looks great.
I thought my husband was the only one in the world with that interesting cotton wool issue. (Though he also has issues with needles. I wonder if one led to the other.) I am so glad this is not a unique phenomenon!
that's lovely - the color is great
your top is so cute - I think I like yours better than the one in the book, actually. pretty color on you, too.
It looks a lovely top Alice. I hope you manage to like it enough to wear it. I laughed reading your post, remembering that I used to have the same revulsion when pulling cotton wool. And somehow I'd just stopped thinking about it. :)
hello i think that this post is very good because has useful information.
I have been known to go to the back of a queue, or change queue in a shop because the someone has come and stood behind chewing spearmint gum.
Thanks for this review! I'll be glad to use this. Keep up the good work and also keep writing.
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