So I got bit by the crochet bug about a few months ago. I have always done some crochet for years (one day soon I will blog about the best hotpads in creation), but this was something more. In the last few months I have made a couple of shrugs, have two in the making and have just started another project, the winter sweater. The winter sweater is a singular and wonderful item. If you can manage to find one in a store to buy, cherish it. I have not been so lucky.

I was inspired yesterday by this absolutely gorgeous Cascade wool yarn I found in this great yarn store, In a Yarn Basket, here in Bloomington, Indiana. It is Ecological Wool which is 100% Peruvian Highland Wool and I picked up four undyed skeins. As anyone who crochets know, you have to have quite a bit more yarn for your projects than knitters do, which can really hurt your pocketbook (I will show off my $100 Noro wool shrug one of these days too).This yarn is gorgeous and comes in 478 yard skeins. I hadn’t really thought about it, but that is a lot of yarn and I bought 4 of these skeins. I started laughing hysterically when the store owner brought them out after balling them up for me because man, those balls were huge!

The other yarn in the photo is some glorious 100% baby alpaca also made by Cascade called Pure Alpaca and will make a wonderful lace shrug. It is a smaller weight yarn and comes in 220 yard skeins which is a more average amount of yarn per skein. The difference in the two cracks me up though. Here is a link to the sweater I am making, it is a Caron pattern I found from the Crochet Pattern Central which if you haven’t been to yet is a wonderful site (they also have a Knitting Pattern Central too) that has links to thousands of patterns across the web (only the free ones) all at your fingertips.

Caron Asymmetrical Jacket Pattern

Crochet Pattern Central 

I also have to showcase a YouTube video I found on a crochet stitch that I have just found out about. It is called foundation single chain and I really wish I had heard about this one sooner, but hey, sooner is always preferable to never.

Crochet Foundation Single Chain

The video is a good tutorial. I will have to post pictures of the sweater as I go. I am currently working on the collar and have a long way to go. Good thing it is still summer.

– Kristin