I’ve been working to up my sweater game recently, and correcting past mistakes. One mistake I made early on when getting back into this hobby was to use the wrong yarn. When I took up crochet as a child and then as a young adult, I made nothing more challenging than granny square blankets, so using the wrong yarn didn’t really have any real consequences. But in my apparel projects, using the wrong yarn had a definite impact on the results.

One yarn choice I regretted for a few projects was Caron’s Big Cakes. That yarn was best used for blankets, so it was my use of it in those projects, rather than the yarn itself that was the issue. When I used it to make the Habitat cardigan, I was so underwhelmed by the results, I never wore it – ever. My post about it can be found here:
https://onthehook.home.blog/2019/12/16/a-warm-cocoon-of-a-sweater/

My decision to re-make this sweater was also prompted by some yarn I found in the Joann sales bin: Red Heart Soft. There were three large balls of it (513 yards each) in a lovely steel blue colour – which has since been discontinued, so naturally all references to it have disappeared completely. But it was the perfect yarn for this project, so I gave the pattern another try. Here is the result:

I realise that this looks rather bizarre on the hanger, but unlike my old house, this house has no full-length mirrors. I put a narrow one on the closet door, but cannot get a wide enough picture unless I’m standing in the washroom, directly across from that mirror. And a picture of me standing in front of a toilet is just not on. So you’ll have to trust me that this looks better on my person than on the hanger.

My second sweater was inspired by a pattern I found a while ago and was also waiting for the right yarn. Then I found Lion Brand Basic Stitch in Steel Blue (which is actually a gorgeous dark marine blue). I bought all of the skeins and started in. Here’s the pattern:
https://sitncrochet.com/ribbed-crochet-crop-cardigan-free-pattern/?fbclid=IwAR0k5M4aonHce1nKY17KJ4RTYsciU0nadND_fWaoxwWj4HuE901zKGzKLu8

I made it a bit looser than the pattern, but pretty much kept it the same, otherwise. This was a pretty easy pattern to do and looks great.