Up/Down stitch

Many years ago - I crocheted a sweater in an up/down stitch - it was worked in a soft acrylic worsted weight yarn - Dazzleaire I believe. In Denim, of course! It was my favorite sweater, until I discovered a hole in it - I don't know how it got there. I tried to fix it, but I can still see the hole. Or where it was. It's a fairly easy sweater to make, and I've been looking for the perfect yarn to rework it in. So, in my never-ending quest for that perfect yarn, I swatched Fantasy Naturale in the up/down stitch. Here is what it looks like.

I should have worked this one in denim, because, after all, that's the color I'll make the sweater in. But, it looks good in the light green, and it would probably look good in any of the colors. Even the new colors that look like tweed. I might have to make a couple of these sweaters for me!

It makes a solid fabric, but not a heavy one, and an interesting fabric - not one like a plain sc or dc. This might just have to be my next project!

I have some more projects I want to take pictures of - a couple of tapestry crochet baskets, using Fantasy Naturale. You'll see how the yarn really shows the stitches and the color changes.

I welcome any and all feedback on this yarn - if you haven't tried it, you really should. As I've said before, it's a favorite of mine! It's not expensive - and one skein will go a long way. You can swatch along with me (sal).

I'll let you know the next yarn I pick to swatch - real soon!

Loop Stitch

Usually, I work loop stitches in mohairs or chenilles. (I have done loop stitches in ribbon yarn and regular worsted weight acrylic, though.) I decided to try the loop stitch in Fantasy Naturale - I can't believe I never tried it before. Here's the result.

I just made a small swatch - but I can tell that this would be an interesting fabric. It wouldn't be as soft as mohair or chenille - but it would make an interesting scarf or shawl, or edging for a sweater or purse.

This swatch shows a rib stitch in the denim Fantasy Naturale. (Which color do you think is my favorite?) I used post stitches, one front, one back, to make the rib. I like how this looks, and it gives the fabric a little stretch.

I finally figured out how to upload pictures - so I'll do another one now. And add more later! I still have to figure out how to upload more than one picture at the same time! :-)

This swatch is of a Granny Square - one of my favorite stitch patterns. (The meaning of life is really a granny square!)
I find that the yarn tends to stretch a little at the shoulders of a sweater if there is a lot of material (weight) hanging down, when I use this pattern stitch. But, it doesn't stretch out of shape, and I don't think this detracts from the garment, or the yarn! This swatch was taken from a sweater that I made, and you can see that there is no stretching or distortion here. I will have to do a swatch using linked dc stitches, to see how that looks.

This second swatch is of dc stitches. They are easy to see, and easy to work into. These are worked in rows, so you see the slant of the stitches in each row. This makes the rows easy to count.