Crochet Summer Sweater

Summer is here!
After I've finished my poncho, I immediately felt a need to make an Actually Wearable Summer Garment. Maybe not just plain wearable, but a little bit stylish, too - yes, sometimes my crochet fantasies are quite daring!

Mesh pattern is great - not only appropriate for summer, but also saves your yarn and works up pretty fast.

The sweater weighs 450g :)

I used 3 mm hook and cotton yarn which is 320m in 75g (2 strands put together).

I didn't have any pattern to use as a guide, so it's 100% my own creation. 
The pattern is pretty much obvious (dc, ch1, dc, ch1... repeat until you're satisfied with the size).

However, there are two things that I want to talk about in particular:

Decreasing in a mesh pattern
When I want to decrease at the end of the row, instead of last *dc, ch1, dc* I make dc2tog (with a skipped st between the bases of dc's).
In the beginning of the row, instead of ch 4 (equals  dc, ch1) I make ch 2.
This way, I have a 'triangle' instead of a 'square' in my mesh. With these triangles it's easy to form round-ish neck hole or decrease width of a sleeve.

Neck ribbing
Bottom and sleeve ribbing is easy (2 front post dc, 2 back post dc...), but with the neck it is trickier, because you have to decrease as you go. I did ribbing after front and back details where slip stitched together, so I worked in the round.
Round 1: dc in every stitch around the neckline, trying to make it nice and even.
Round 2: 2 fpdc, 2 bpdc - repeat around.
Round 3: The same as round 2, but near the shoulder seams instead of 2 bpdc work 2 bpdc together.

I hope my explanations made any sense, but if you still have questions, don't hesitate to ask :)

The story of renovation

It's done!
It took 3 months and some noticeable amount of money, but it's finally almost done!
(It could have been much faster.)
(But not much cheaper! At least my conscience can be clear about that part!)
(There's still no furniture in the room. Argh!)
Anyway, here's the history of renovation in mobile pictures - sorry for the abominable quality, but there's not much sense in using DSLR to capture details of hectic mess :) However, there are a couple of pics taken with DSLR in this post, can you spot them? Of course you can!

First day of action, first scraps of wallpaper torn off. It almost counts as a BEFORE picture.
Old curtains are still in place. Desk is still brown and boooring!


Heap of wallpaper scraps gets bigger:
 

I try to wash off old whitewash (tautology?..)
Do you see the difference? Look in the corner...
 

Last day of the old wooden window...


...and first days of new plastic one:


Walls are getting makeover:


Ceiling is now even and painted white.


And here comes new wallpaper...


Time for painting! (And sanding...)



Light fixture has arrived.

 

Radiator changes its color from sad greenish to white. The door also gets a fresh coat of paint.



My favorite process:


Desk is finally covered with 2 layers of paint and 2 layers of lacquer and temporarily relocated to another room.



New curtain rod  takes its place:


Speculating: how it's gonna look?..


Desperate attempts to move sofa out of the room:
 

And finally - the floor!



Yes. The door misses a handle. The curtain is too short. And the glass in the balcony door serves not to let the sunshine in, but to show off untidiness of the balcony.

Who cares? Let's bring the furniture in, invite some friends and have a party! =))

Minsk

I walk by myself, enjoying long summer days.
I'm happy. I live where I want to live.