The next step

[softcake_70]

Making baby blankets and scarves is fun, really. But after making about a gazillion blankies I needed a new challenge.
Hats! Lots and lots of hats! For kids, since I don't like wearing hats ;-)

I started with a very simple pattern and decorated the hats with crochet flowers and occhi butterflies.





After mastering the art of simple hat-making ;) I eventually became bolder and tried my luck with "real" clothing, aka little sweaters, like these.



I used sockyarn for them - my mother had a few balls in her stash. (my mother knits socks, and only socks....an endless stream of socks)
Both look a bit baggy and uneven, Basically I crocheted 4 rectangles for each and sew them together, and I wasn't very satiesfied with how they turned out. I still wasn't very experienced with making shaped garments and realized I had to do something about it if I wanted to do it right, so I bought a couple of books. And studied ;)

I found these books very very helpful:

• "Creating crochet fabric" by Dora Ohrenstein
• "Custom crocheted sweaters" by Dora Ohrenstein
• "Everyday crochet" by Doris Chan
• and "Little crochet" by Linda Permann.

All of these ladies are well-known crochet designers and obviously know what they are writing about. They all say it's important to "know your crochet", aka know your stitches, pick the right hook, don't ignore the gauge, pick the right yarn for your project and so on. I followed their advice  and - voilà - the first shaped little cardigan! Wheee :)