Raspberry Lemonade Sweater

I know, strange name, but I was drinking raspberry lemonade as I was working on this sweater and they were the exact same color!!

I made this for a friend of mine who is having a baby girl next week. I found the pattern on ravelry for free, which is always a plus. The only problem is that the pattern is for a sweater, bonnet and booties and was very old fashioned so I did a few changes. It called for fingering weight yarn, but there are not a lot of fun color choices at my LYS so I used a sport DK instead. This did make the sweater much bigger than I had hoped, but as hot as it is here right now there is no need for it to be newborn size. I was hoping for 6-12 months, but considering that I tried it on Diya, who is 22 months old, and it fit makes me think that it will be awhile before the baby gets to wear it.
The body ended up being kind of short so I decided to make it a short sleeved sweater and it can either be a spring/fall sweater or she can wear it in the winter with a long sleeved shirt underneath. I hadn't crocheted anything in awhile so it was nice to have a nice quick project and to refresh my crocheting skills. That is one of the things I like about crochet, it is super fast, plus it is also a easy on the pocket book. All I had to pay for for this sweater was one skein of yarn and a $1.99 crochet hook. I love knitting but as I have stated before in previous posts, getting all the needles for a project can add up fast.

I love this yarn so much that I think I am going to get some more of it to make matching knitted sweaters for Isha and Diya for this winter. I am thinking about knitting them both at the same time so that they are finished at the same time so that the girls can wear them this winter, but that does mean doubling up on the needles.

Finally

I have wanted to try out this pattern for years and have never gotten around to it until now. Part of the problem is that I was never sure what size of bulb to buy because the pattern calls for a 2 5/8 inch bulb, but none of them are labeled at the store. So I started the pattern and then figured I would just "try it on" at the store to find the right bulb. I finally ended up at Michael's and found some bulbs that had measurements on them and to my surprise my attempt at this pattern was way to big for a 2 5/8 inch bulb. I guess I should have checked my gauge! This was my first attempt at crocheting with such a fine thread and small hook and my work was just to loose, but luckily I did find some bigger bulbs that my pattern fit on.

I was hoping for a nice colored bulb, but these clear glass ones were all I could find in the right size. I added the bow to give the ornament a little color. My goal now is to make a few more and hopefully I can get my crocheting tight enough to put the pattern on the correct size bulb, but all in all I was pretty happy with how the final product came out.

This one is going to one of the mom's in my Richmond Mommies group. We are having a mom's night out and an ornament exchange. I hope the new owner loves this ornament as much as I do.