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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Crochet Jacket Extraordinaire!


Hello friends!
Well, here it is! Remember when I posted a few little pics of some mysterious crochet recently? A little while ago a lovely friend of mine sent me an email with a photograph a crochet jacket that she'd stumbled upon on the internet. She really wanted it... so I obliged...and made this! There was no pattern for the jacket available, so I improvised the design, construction and a pattern of sorts from the photograph my friend had sent me.
I had a lot of fun working with my friend choosing the colours :-)
Some of the yarn is 100% pure wool yarn and 100% Alpaca yarn from the Bendigo Woollen Mills, some is 100% wool that I hand dyed, some is a random alpaca that had been languishing in my yarn stash for a little while and some is a Cleckheaton 100% wool :-) I think the colours look pretty amazing together :-)
Just in case you are curious the yarns are as follows:
-Dark green is Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 8ply/DK in Pine colour way.
-Bright green is Bendigo Classic 8ply/DK which was originally in Magnolia colour way that I dyed a neon/Granny Smith Apple colour using a Wiltons food dye in Kelly Green (using vinegar and heat to set the colour)
-Coral is a Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic 8ply/DK that was originally Magnolia colour way that I dyed Coral using a Landscape Dye in Coral colour way (these dyes are available from KraftKolour)
-Deep Red is Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic 8ply/DK in Cranberry colour way.
-Deep Purple is Bendigo Woollen Mills Persian 8ply/DK in Eggplant colour way.
-Rust wool is Cleckheaton Country Colours Naturals in #1832 colour way.
-Bright Blue is The Rare Yarns Company Rare Essentials alpaca/merino in Lapis colour way.

I worked on it for 4 days, crocheting, measuring, stitching and weaving in ALL THOSE YARN ENDS!! Oh, then yarns ends! In the end the jacket weighed just over 1 kilogram!
As I said, I didn't have a pattern to work from, so a lot of "designing" and planning was involved, but it worked very well :-)
After making this one, I'm pretty tempted to make myself one as well :-)
If you already follow me on Facebook at Shara Lambeth Designs or on Instagram at shara_made 
Instagram you may have already seen some little sneak peeks of this jacket. If you would like to see more images of the things I make, or what I get up to on my travels, you can follow me on Facebook and Instagram too :-)
P.S. It was a little tricky to find the origins of the original images of the jacket that my friend emailed me that inspired this jacket, however after a bit of searching we discovered that it was from a blog post that now no longer exists, which is a shame as the jacket in that blog post, that was such an inspiration, is quite spectacular and I would have loved to have included a link here :-)

14 comments:

  1. OHH my GOD!!! how long did it took you to finish it? really pretty Hugs

    lauest.com

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  2. Hello Fernanyi :-) Thank you :-) I worked on the jacket for four or five days, then I wet blocked it and it took 1.5 days to dry :-) It was lots of work, but equally as much fun :-)

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  3. Oh my goodness me! I saw this and thought "oh, here's a pic of her inspiration"... but this is what you made?!? And in less than a week - heavens above! (you must be a much faster crocheter than I) This is gorgeous, wow, well done you xx

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  4. That is beautiful, it would never be off my back until it fell into tatters!

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  5. I love the jacket, is beautiful.

    with kind regards from the netherlands

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  6. I know exactly the missing blog you speak of and have been attempting to piece together something similar myself with little luck. Would you consider making the pattern available? I'd gladly pay for it! Yours is spectacular!

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    1. Hello Loorin :-) Thank you for your lovely comment :-) As the design isn't mine it would be a breach of copyright for me to write a pattern and distribute it. So this one is just a case of "reverse engineering" from pictures. Sorry! If it helps you, I used 4.5mm, 5mm, 5.5mm hooks & 8ply/DK weight yarn. The flare of the "skirt" section of the jacket is created by using a larger hook for each row of squares, rather than making larger squares :-)

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    2. Thanks very much! I do appreciate your ethics on the matter and appreciate the help :)

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  7. Just stumbled on this, this is stunning love your blog x

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    1. Thank you lovely Laura :-) I hope you're having a wonderful day :-)

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  8. I am so heartbroken that you cannot reproduce this pattern! (for us) If it is no longer available anywhere, and I assume it isn't because I have been looking everywhere for the red one,(that is the one, yes?) How can we locate this pattern? You did a great job!! Please email me at heidihillnyc@gmail for any info!

    Regards
    h

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  9. I am so heartbroken that you cannot reproduce this pattern! (for us) If it is no longer available anywhere, and I assume it isn't because I have been looking everywhere for the red one,(that is the one, yes?) How can we locate this pattern? You did a great job!! Please email me at heidihillnyc@gmail for any info!

    Regards
    h

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  10. Wow, this is amazing! It sure makes me wish I knew how to crochet, haha. Maybe some day...

    Sarah | Kids Clothing Designer

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  11. Very Well-Written Content. I found this blog unique and what i have been looking for, many thanks.Advance Independence Day Wishes

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