Esmée in UK Terminology

I've converted the Esmée pattern into UK terminology (dc instead of sc, and tr instead of dc). It should be available to download alongside the US terminology pattern when you buy it on Ravelry. There weren't any drastic changes to the pattern aside from changing letters, but hopefully it will be easier for people who are fluent in UK terminology to understand! Please let me know if any parts are unclear, or if I accidentally left in a rogue 'sc' or changed some letters that shouldn't have been changed (eg dchematic rather than schematic!).






I'm not really working on any projects at the moment. I am awaiting some Quince and Co yarn from Loop, which I intend to make into some swatches to try and submit to various publications. However, most of my time is taken up with making notes for my Master's dissertation, which I am starting at the beginning of October.

Esmée Relaunched

I've been a busy bee the last couple of weeks, rewriting Esmée and then formatting the pattern, drawing charts and a schematic, and getting photos. But it is finally done and released!




The blurb from Ravelry:

The Esmée Cardigan is a shaped lace crochet cardigan.

The first version of this cardigan was published in Inside Crochet magazine in the January 2011 issue, which is available as a paper copy, a digital copy on yudu.com, or as a pdf from KAL media. This version is in UK terminology.

As there were considerable errata problems with the original published pattern, it has been completely rewritten in US terminology, with charts, a detailed schematic and measurements, and fit alterations. This version also includes instructions for a 54in size (as well as 30-50in as in the original pattern). This pattern is available to buy as a pdf download from Ravelry, and comprises 11 pages.

A sample was made in Jamieson and Smith 2 Ply Jumper weight in blue. Although aesthetically it is very similar to the original pattern, there have been several changes in the construction of the cardigan, to try and ensure a better fit - in particular, sleeve shaping and placement of neckline shaping.

Some other details that were too long/didn't really fit the Ravelry blurb:

If you're wavering between buying the Inside Crochet version or this new Ravelry download version, then I'd urge you to buy this new pattern. Not just because I get the money from it, but because I've put a lot of work into making this a really good pattern, with lots of features that weren't/couldn't be featured in the Inside Crochet version for various reasons (space, style, I hadn't thought of them at the time). There are also various errata in the Inside Crochet pattern which, though I think I've now written out corrections for all of them on the Ravelry pattern page, do change the flow of the pattern. These errata are also all numerical - in that they represent places where the numbers of the pattern were off. If you think of a pattern as a giant formula for making a cardigan, these were places where the formula was broken - where the numbers given would not work with the cardigan as made. With the corrections, you have the right formula and then create the cardigan

But what I've endeavoured to do with the rewritten pattern is fix areas where the cardigan didn't fit properly. This isn't a numerical errata problem- the numbers were all right, but there are places where the back was a bit wide or the cardigan fell off the shoulders. These are things that I only discovered once people started making the cardigan, and I made my own version. When I was setting out to publish the pattern, I thought that it would be a waste just to republish a pattern that evidently didn't work on all sizes - problems that are minuscule on the Size 34in sample size are much larger on the bigger sizes - such as falling off shoulders etc.

So I went back to the very beginning. I made gauge swatches, I made lots of schematics based upon the Craft Yarn Council's Women's Size Charts and I wrote out all of the body instructions as based upon the numbers that I'd come up with for the schematics. Then I held my breath and crocheted a 42in sample - one that would fit me. And it fitted, all the problems that I'd had before - the back being too big, the shoulders falling off, seem to be solved. I then worked on a new sleeve cap and sleeve shaping design, and added those on. These seem to work too.

I then drew lots and lots of charts to try and explain the potentially confusing parts. As a visual crocheter, I rely a lot on charts and was somewhat disappointed that Inside Crochet didn't include the charts that I'd sent with the pattern (although they were a bit rubbish). All the charts in the Ravelry pattern are hand drawn - I decided to do this rather than doing them on the computer as it was easier both to do and to correct mistakes. As I go along, I always draw charts for the tricky bits (neckline shaping!) and so I'm very fluent in hand drawing charts. I found some good felt tips to draw them out and I think what I've drawn is very clear - in an ideal world, of course I'd like perfect, computer drawn charts. But I couldn't find a way to computer draw them without them looking very pixelly, and being difficult to resize.

Anyway, this version of the pattern should be a big improvement. The sample is truly a joy to wear - it's possibly the first crocheted cardigan that I've made for myself where I don't sit and mentally edit what I would change with it while I am wearing it.

My Dad took the photos for me in the Isle of Wight. As you can see from the photos, it was very, very windy! In most of the photos, my hair looks awful, though my Mum was on hand with a brush every time it got too out of hand! It was a really beautiful location - near St Catherine's Oratory. There are lots more photos of the cardigan in a set I've made on Flickr.

I think that's all I want to say about the cardigan now! I'm planning a workbook/textbook/primer (?!) on crochet lace cardigans-  how to fit crochet lace into schematics, working out how to decrease crochet lace, that sort of thing. I've also got quite a few stitch patterns that I want to work with to explain all this. But it's very intimidating (the idea of trying to teach and explain something rather than just write a pattern), and I'm not sure if I have time to do it. However, it is the sort of information that I would like to be out there and available, and well, someone's got to do it!

Where July went

This is a short post with a few photos. My July has been full of graduation, holiday with friends, family gathering, helping cook on a summer camp for teenagers in Norfolk, and working on the Esmée pattern. Aside from Esmée, most of my crafting time (which was few and far between) has been limited to knitting a laceweight shawl - an easy, small, travelling project which is far from finished.

The Esmée pattern is going well - I've written up everything except the arm instructions, and am halfway through making a 42in sample. The most exciting part of this sample is that I've just measured it, and the bust measurement comes to 43in - exactly what I was aiming for, so hopefully these new instructions are right. They seem to be working so far, which is very encouraging.

Here's a few photos from Norfolk to appease skim readers, both were taken at Weybourne beach:

Swatches

I've finished my exams and am proceeding through the curious Cambridge experience known as May Week. May Week is a deceptive title, as it actually lasts about ten days and is in June. It's basically the week between everyone's exams finishing and having to go home, and is full of lavish May Balls, garden parties, lying in the sun (or rain, as it has been this week) and spending time with friends. We went to see Trinity May Ball's fireworks last night - which were sublime with fireworks, coloured fountains and balls of flame set to music, but also quite obscene in the amount of money they must have spent on it. Tonight we're planning to go and see St John's College's May Ball's (their 500 year anniversary May Ball, no less) fireworks. These fireworks are as close as we can get to the May Balls (tickets are expensive and nigh on impossible to get hold of) so we're hoping that they're going to be good.

Aside from firework watching, on the few spare moments, I've been trying to update and alter my Esmée pattern. Crocheting from the pattern for myself meant that I've identified many areas where I think it needs altering, and thus have decided to start from scratch. I've drawn schematics for each size, and am working from them to try and get the right sizing. But in some ways, this is a bit of a headache - I'm changing the neckline decreases, and this seems to require different instructions for each size and ack! I'm still plagued by doubt that I will get it wrong again, but, I know that lots of people responded positively to the look of the pattern, so I'd love to get the pattern itself right for when I can self-publish it.




While I was revising however, I had put Esmée to the back of my mind, and my crocheting was focussed on the follow-on project for when I finish the Esmée pattern. I don't want to say too much about it now, but it has involved crocheting a lot of swatches.



I'm quite excited about it - but I know that the hard work of getting the written Esmée pattern right has to be done before it. As blogging about 'ack! neckline decreases' is a little boring, I thought that I would just post up some pictures of swatches to amuse the eye. And as the weather finally appears fine, and I and my friends now have lots of free time, I intend to get photographs of Esmée 2 and my Ashfield Cardigan in a lovely location.



And to keep working on those neckline decreases.

Esmee Cardigan, Inside Crochet and Tiny Hats

I've been somewhat overwhelmed with work this term, and the idea of blogging about my crafting has become something of an alien concept. However, I think this is a crafting event that definitely needs documenting.

Photo from Inside Crochet, KALMedia on Yudu

That, the Esmée Cardigan on the cover of Inside Crochet magazine, is my cardigan. The cardigan that I designed, made, and wrote the pattern for, and the first design that I submitted for publication.

The Esmée cardigan began with Lila, at the beginning of 2009. I had attempted to make Annette Pétavy's Leaves sweater from the Crochet Me! book, but lack of swatching meant that I made it hideously too large. Annoyed, I went in search of other 4-ply crochet patterns, eventually, (well, probably not after very long as they're in the same book) Robyn Chachula's Comfy Cardi. However, I found the instructions for the arm a little difficult to understand, but found the stitch pattern to be quite beautiful. Really, I just wanted a lacy cardigan, with some shaping that took account of the fact that I have breasts and a waist. A quick drawing ended up with something very similar to what I ended up submitting with the Esmée cardigan (this is what I submitted with Esmée):

Some kind of lacy pattern, v-neck, waistband/differentiation/cinching. I worked out how many repeats of the 'lacy diamonds' pattern from the Comfy Cardy I would need for my measurements, and off I went. And produced this:

While the measurements were right, the placing of the armholes were not - the back was too large, making the v-neck all skewed, the shoulders falling down the arms. It just didn't quite work. But my Mum liked it, and asked me to make one similar for her.

The idea of making an identical Lila (or Mila - Lila for Mum, as I christened it) sounded rather boring, and so I went in search of an interesting stitch pattern that might at least vary the experience. I ended up choosing the 'Gilded fans' stitch pattern from the Crochet Vogue Stitchionary. And by the beginning of June, I had created this:

That didn't quite work either - but that's more through blunders rather than design fault. The back fits perfectly, as do the sleeves, but I placed the waist band much too low, drawing attention to the widest point and being utterly unflattering. I also knew that if I was to make the cardigan again, then I would have to choose a stitch pattern that worked well with the decreases required by the v-neck, as well as being slightly easier to work in the round (ish - backwards and forwards creating a fairly seamless look rather than strictly 'in the round') for the sleeves. Gilded fans was a bit of a nightmare.

So when Inside Crochet sent out a call for patterns, I knew that if I was going to send in a garment then it would have to be something that I was familiar with. And though Lila and Mila had both been imperfect, they had received compliments on the design (v-neck, lace, waistband) and so I decided to go for it. A happy night practising different stitch patterns, and trying to come up with a lace that was visually interesting (like the 'lacy diamonds' on Lila) without being overpowering (which the 'gilded fans' on Mila has a tendency to be). I ended up thinking about leaves, and my love of dc2tog (US terms) and the diamond stitch pattern of Esmée was created.

Proposal was submitted, accepted. Yarn came in early summer, stitching began in earnest in July as I tried to organise crochet around helping on a kid's camp and going to Brittany for dissertation research. Struggled with the whole idea of making something 'sample size' (size 10, I am not). Finally, when I had just finished it, found someone of 'sample size' build to try it on for me. Lovely, although I must mention that on her, it fell to the 'well-fitted' end of the spectrum (rather than flowy), which I think I was aiming for but if you want something flowing and for layering, then it may be worth making a size larger (or definitely swatching and checking before you make).

Chose buttons. Being back at the kids' camp and without much computer access, wrote pattern out by hand. Wished I'd made more notes. Cursed choosing to do a v-neck. Drew numerous stitch diagrams to try and work out how it all worked. Finished. Typed up at home. Made stitch diagrams on computer - much respect for people who draw all their stitch diagrams on the computer. Thought up various blurbs. Thought of name. Thought about name more. Decided on name - Esmée - memorable of Esmeralda or the green colour, French as much of it was stitched in France, feminine.

Sent off at the beginning of September. Waited. Waited. Waited.

And then saw this:

Photo from Inside Crochet, KALMedia on Yudu

Ah. Happy.

In the meantime, I have been crafting. Quite a lot of knitting - made four green hats, of which two are still existing (two frogged to make the other two). Practised lace knitting. Started knitting gloves.

Made nine (lost one) tiny hats for my friend to use as decorations for a Christmas dinner she ran, in this picture, the ones that I made are in the two rows on the right (the rest are from Innocent Smoothie bottles):

Four are crocheted (top right, both on 2nd row to bottom, and bottom left of the 2 columns), and the rest were knit. I used the knitted ones to practise some techniques - ribbing (top left), colourwork (2nd row) and Christmas pudding making (bottom right). The one that I lost was white and I had practised cables on.

My favourite is the yellow one:

It's done in Tunisian crochet, worked flat with two rows of decreases and then sewed together.

The top photo also shows the Granny Square blanket I've been making. It's currently 5x5 squares, intended to use up stash.