May 6
Made a test swatch to wash a few weeks ago, but starting for real today. Finished first square. I had to go up several hook sizes to get close to gauge. Still coming out a bit small but that’s ok. I have no intention of wearing it as shown, but with the lace in the back as an open drape-front cardigan. I may well make the back panels larger. I will also make the sleeves a little slimmer than the lg calls for.

May 10
Happy Mother’s Day!
3 squares finished.

May 14
Back complete, all squares sewn & ends woven. Experimented with front width & settled on 45 chains to start, hope I’m happy with that….

May 15
Almost 1/2 of first back panel. Gosh I hope I like this once it’s done….right now my jury’s kind of out…..

May 26
These hdc mesh pieces are slow-going to make. I haven’t even finished one front yet, because I keep alternating with other projects with this.

June 12
One front finished & sewn on. I put it upside-down from the pattern (narrow at top, wide at bottom), as I want a v-neck cardi. It looks great, my husband even commented on it as I was trying it on. I’m just worried I will run out of yarn since I made the ‘fronts’ wider as well. It will be close…. Making sleeves with 76 stitches around.

June 19
Over half done with 2nd front, & almost done with 1st sleeve. I worked on the sleeve till I used up one ball. I started tapering at the elbow as I did not want loose sleeves. I also have been turning at each round so the fabric matches the fronts, & the ‘seam’ doesn’t spiral visibly around my arm (you can see it in one of the magazine images). It’s not long enough yet, but I’m going to finish the other front & do the entire body edging before I start the other sleeve, so see how much yarn I have left. I may wind up with 3/4 length sleeves, which is ok on a light summer cardi, tho I would prefer full length.

June 21
Finished ball #6, 15 rows to go on left front. So I have two balls left. One will get the left sleeve to 3/4 length as the right. Will the other be enough to complete the left front, do all the edging, AND lengthen both sleeves? I’m doubting it.

June 22
Left front finished and attached!!! WOOOOOO!!! Edging begun. The end is in sight….

June 25
Edging finished! In the interest of saving yarn, I only did 3 rows of sc on the fronts, not 5 as in the pattern. Then I did the first edging all around the entire piece, but only put the scallops on each front & around the neck edge, but not the bottom edge. I would have liked them there, but I would then have had to dip into my last ball, which is earmarked for the 2nd sleeve. If I’m lucky I will have enough to get that sleeve as long as the first…..I used more than one ball on sleeve 1, and it still needs edging too. I have a bit left from the body edging ball plus two swatches I can frog.

July 14
This poor thing has been back-burnered for the last several weeks in favor of my designing efforts. But I took it to (my first!) crochet guild meeting tonight & got it almost done…and I will stay awake tonight until IT IS DONE!

So far: frogged some of sleeve one (right) to complete bottom edging. Have almost 50 rows left. Have 48 done on sleeve two. I did go back and add the scallops to the entire bottom edge. It looked incomplete without them. Have approx 30 yards of yarn left. That includes the yarn from frogging my two swatches. I’m going to try for 50 rounds on each sleeve then edging.

July 15
Well I fell asleep last night.
But I finished it this morning!! I’m wearing it!! It’s FINALLY DONE!!! Happy with the final result. But I doubt I’ll be making anything else mesh anytime soon.