Crochet to Wear

I love to crochet. I have been doing it since I was a preteen, and have continued it these past 10 or so years. I got interested in the craft from watching my mom with her yarns, then picked up bits and pieced from my mom, my dad, and my mamaw (grandma). I began by trying to make a blanket. I know, it's a big project to just "start out" and learn on, but I was determined. Unfortunately I never finished that first blanket. I lost it, actually. Then started another first blanket, but misplaced it for a few years while taking a break from yarn. By the time I was in Texas I had picked yarn back up again, and had actually completed 3 projects. One was a camouflage mini-backpack, another was my first blanket, a ripple afghan in dark Italian colors, and the last was a crocheted replica of the Texas flag, an afghan for my husband. :)

I then got into stuffed animals. I have made many different animals, in many different colors, most of them all my own design and style. I even made an R2D2, from Star Wars. :) I made a large shoulder bag (that I actually used for a laundry bag for a while. A very decorative laundry bag...). I made a World of Warcraft pillow. I have also made a bouquet of crocheted flowers and leaves. That one came out BEAUTIFUL. Since then, I have started many projects and got just too excited about still other projects to really finish anything.

Hopefully I will finish every project I started. There is a blanket I am making from a book with 63 different sample patterns sewn together in patches, a Winnie-the-Pooh shag rug for my son, a large beginners chess set... not to mention the fact that I have many squares made in different colors and patterns, just waiting for me to arrange them into their own small throws.

The project I am currently working on, however, I refuse to put down. Not until it is done and I have decided that it is either a great work of art, or a waste of time.

You see, I am making a dress. Before I talk about the dress, though, I should inform you that I have had a phase in which I tried to make clothing. Actually, I was looking at a book that had shirts, bags, cardigans, moccasins, and even a skirt! All crocheted. For anyone who knows yarn projects, you may know that clothing is best knitted, not crocheted. Most crochet stitches are too big and too open to wear, and so most are designed to be open, like a lace cardigan or a "chunky" coat, or even a beautiful cowl-neck sweater, made with open lace that keeps you a bit warm, maybe in fall but not thick or heavy enough to really protect you from the elements (the cowl-neck sweater is one I definitely mean to try out one of these days). But I want to make a dress. So I have been searching for the right patterns and stitches, and here's what I came up with.

I am going to make it a tank top dress, down to my knees with a lacy border that goes a few inches below that. The 6-7 inches around the waist will be a bit tighter, and the skirt part will flare out some. The top and skirt part will be a slightly dark teal color, and the waist section will be a pale yellow. There will also be a pale yellow 3 layer flower where one strap meets the dress. The teal sections will be done in Seed Stitch, and I think the pale yellow part will be either traditional Single Crochet or perhaps something vertical that might have some stretchy capability.

Now, the hardest part is that it is designed so that it will not be see through. Seed Stitch is a fairly tight stitch, to help minimize the appearance of spaces between stitches. But that doesnt mean there wont be any spaces. I may end up sewing a thin fabric underneath, to make absolutely sure it's not see through, and that will be a bit more comfortable, but I dont want it to unravel if it gets a hole in it or gets caught on something and the string snaps in any place.

So this will be my first project that I experiment with washing and blocking.

My other projects were washed, true, but I have yet to actually "wash and block". The process of washing and blocking, so I understand, shrinks the yarn as well and forms it to the shape you desire. I watched a show where a woman took a project she had "wash and blocked" and cut it. Cut right through a section with a pair of scissors, and the project acted like a fabric, no unraveling, no loose yarn... it was amazing. I will have to do some research to find out exactly how to do that, but it will have to wait till the dress is made. No use worrying about it now if I don't get that far.

Wish me luck on completing a started project in less than a month!