Yes, I made a matching pants :) I will blog about the pants in another blog post.
No, I did not make that hat. QW's aunt bought it for her :) It is a reindeer hat :) Isn't it cute?
And yes again, I have been making sweaters lately. That is not without a reason. We are bringing QW to New Zealand (NZ) in September!!!
While we are excited to show her the beautiful sceneries in NZ, I am actually quite wary of how cold it may get in September. It would still be Spring in NZ at that time. That means, it will probably be on the cooler, or I should just say colder, side. Hubby did a check and told us the average temperature will be about 11ºC. *Brrrzzzz~~~* *Shivers*
This is not my 1st time going to NZ. Actually, this will be our 3rd time. And I know what NZ is like. Not very cloudy, strong wind, etc. This just means a couple of things:
1. Strong wind means you probably won't feel the heat from the Sun. Having said that, it doesn't mean the Sun is not there. If you are deceived into thinking that cool = no sun, you are going to be sooooo wrong. End result? Sun burnt! and/or wind burnt!
2. Not very cloudy. This meant that the chances of getting sun burnt is high since the clouds which usually block out the Sun is not there~
So, what to do? A ex-colleague who studied her degree in NZ gave the following advices when I was going to visit NZ for the 1st time:
1. Apply sun screen and reapply often depending on its SPF and PA.
2. Apply aloe vera gel. It is going to be a saviour especially if one really get sun/wind burnt.
3. Moisturiser should do the trick but aloe vera gel would be more calming for the skin.
4. Also, good wind breaker is a big yes yes! Sweater, inner wear, leg warmers, etc. anything to keep warm would be great because the wind is going to make you feel even colder.
Sharing some photos which I took throughout the process:
 |
| Skirt |
 |
| Close-up of the skirt |
 |
| Yoke completed, sleeves half done |
 |
| Almost done! |
I did follow the pattern pretty closely at the beginning. The main difference from the given pattern was instead of using 4 more colours on the skirt, I used only 2 (gold and purple) on top of the main colour (green).
I deviated from the pattern much more for the yoke area because I feel that the neckline of the original pattern was too low. Also, I spread the buttons further apart because I did not want the sweater to flare outwards too much.
The pattern is pretty beginner friendly, though it can be confusing if you looked at both the website version and downloaded pdf version. I suspect the differences is because one is written based on US crochet language, while the other UK crochet language. Personally, my preference is for the website version.
This project took lesser time to finish as compared to the puffy baby sweater. It is also lighter than the puffy baby sweater. Perhaps it is because the Eloise baby sweater mainly uses double crochets and single crochets, while the puffy baby sweater has a lot of puff stitches. The puff stitches definitely added a lot of weight and warmth to the sweater. But, it also "consumed" much more yarn than this Eloise sweater.
Well, since this project is done, it's time to proceed to the next project yet again ;)
