Sweet - Finished (or almost?)

My first sweater!

Frogged the last version back up to the v-neck join, where I tied it off and joined anew at one of the armpits. Then I crocheted in the round, reversing direction after each row to keep the pattern regular. Did sc in back, then transitioned to hdc then dc (and then back to hdc and sc) in front for about three rows to simulate sideways darts for boobs.

The waist band: alternate one row of linked double crochet, right side facing, with one row of: sc/dc/dc in one stitch, skip two stitches, repeat. (For how-to on linked Dc, see "linked treble crochet" directions.) Then half double crochet in one direction to hem, with dart inc

Finishing: Bordered the neckline in single crochet with red to draw the eye upward. I'm wondering whether to add sleeves, either in the same color as the body or in red. My husband is rooting for the cap sleeves, but it's getting cold.

This was a beta version so I used Soft by Red Heart, which has great shine and stitch definition but turned out not to bounce back when stretched. Lesson learned: look for yarn with some elasticity for fitted items.

Sweet

My first crochet-along, and my first real sweater ever.

After some trial and error I followed the template for the Sweet sweater at www.crochetme. com--starting with 7" for the back of the neck--to figure out the base chain length and where to increase for the raglan shoulder seams. Then I reduced the back by a few stitches, and increased the sides by a few stitches to accommodate my long upper body.

Even so, I had to shift the raglan seam increases towards the center body a bit as I went. Then after joining at the bottom of the V neck, I did some dart seam decreases front and back to keep it nicely fitted.

Most of it is in double crochet so far. Kinda boring, but the increases went at the right pace. I always have a problem with the seam wandering when I crochet in the round, so after joining I started to spiral. To keep the beginning of the spiral from looking too funky, I did the first round with single crochet (sc) and then the second round with half-double-crochet (hdc). Then back to dc. It's still a little funky with the plain yarn, but oh well.

I'm also using pretty cheap yarn--Soft by Red Heart, soft acyrlic with nice sheen but probably will pill terribly. But I figure I should finish one sweater (all those balls of unused yarn from aborted projects!) before I allow myself nicer yarn.

I plan to add another color to make long , somewhat flared sleeves with embellishments and perhaps a color block waist band. The bottom will flare out a bit too, for a nice hourglas look I hope.