I love to knit and crochet but regular knitted sweaters never seem to look nice on me.
Then one day I noticed my favourite shaped fabric tunic top was coming apart. Lightbulb moment - what if I could knit or crochet something that looked the same to replace my top!
As crochet is more forgiving in this regard (you can add on to extend, or unravel work more easily), I set to.
I measured each piece of my top (front and back, two side panels and two sleeves) and noted where they curved in or out and measured these spots from the beginning for reference.
I then did a swatch with my yarn and hook to calculate approximately how many stitches to the inch and to figure out which stitches I liked best with the yarn. The stitch I chose was HDC into front loops (for body) and HDC into both loops on sleeves
The finished piece worked out surprisingly well!
There are definitely some tweaks I would make next time but it’s been a fun learning exercise!
Tips:
~ when doing practice swatches, try different increases and decreases to see which looks less obvious and calculate by how much one or two will increase or reduce the row length. That way you can calculate how many to do for shaping
~ practice exactly which chain to start each row in after the turn for nice neat edges or for any increases/decreases you want on the edge
~ I added ribbing to bottom and neckline (alternating HDC into front and back loops) but on the neckline I got a nice roll back effect by adding on a few extra rows of just front post HDC
Have fun with yarn!
Michele