Disappointing Delicious Pullover

Just to be clear to begin with, this is NOT made with the red sparkle yarn I harvested the other day.

This is a very pretty sweater for which the pattern was included in the January 2011 issue of Crochet! magazine called “Berry Delicious Pullover.”   It was made with Red Heart Sparkle, medium worsted weight yarn.  The design on the piece is made with a modified puff stitch they call the berry stitch.  The pyramids of berries on the waist and the sleeves and the inverted pyramid on the collar are really very neat.  All other stitches are single crochet with increasing and decreasing for shaping.

I must say however, that I am extremely disappointed.  It looks nice enough right? Yeah, well I had a couple different issues with this thing.

The Pattern – There were multiple errors in the sizing of this pattern.  I made the medium size and found as I worked that the optional number of stitches for the various sizing were not always correct  (Sc in each of next 4[4, 6, 6, 6, 8] sts – for XS, S, M, L, XL & 2XL, for example.)  A few rows even left out a whole section of the row that had to be worked.  Normally when I work on a project, I have to tell myself, “Just trust the pattern.  It will work out alright.” if I find myself having trouble seeing the pattern doing what I think it is supposed to do.  But I got to the point as I worked with this pattern that I could not trust that it wasn’t me doing something wrong instead of the pattern being in correct.   I don’t think that this pattern was tested in all sizes before it was published.  Very disappointing, and I’ll be hesitant to crochet something like this from Crochet! for some time.

My Gauge – Oh boy…  I made this sweater intending it for myself.  I’ve never made myself a sweater before – just others. So I wanted something pretty to wear that I had made.  Let me say this.  I DID check my gauge!  The medium size is supposed to have a 37 1/2 inch bust, which is larger than what I needed, but the next size down was too small.  When I finished it up and tried it on, it sort of fit, but not really.  I could get it on, but it was a really close, snug fit – not at all the relaxed comfortable fit displayed in the  product picture.  I won’t wear it.  It’s just too snug, probably closer to a 32 than a 37 1/2.  And I won’t go back and make another one either considering all the mistakes in the pattern.  Which again cause me to wonder if I made a mistake in my gauge, or if the pattern’s sizing was actually incorrect.  Medium actually equaled extra small I think.

I’m very bummed.  Anyway, maybe I’ll try and sell it on Etsy or something.  It is very pretty once I got past the pattern errors and got it finished.  Just not for me.  Will anyone who is on the tiny side (or with a pre-teen daughter maybe) give me $25 for it?  If you do, and you send me pictures of her modeling it I will post here!  Lots of hours went into working this up.  Ha!