Swatching

I joined another crochet along on Crochetville, this one is for a vintage cardigan which pattern I already intended to do, I like the joined-squares-sweater type of design and this one looks really nice and easy to do.

I started with swatching attempts (my first time swatching, can you believe that? Maybe I'm growing up!). I crocheted two squares with the same "yarn" I used for my Victoria Secret Along skirt (WPI of 22).
The color didn't come out right, it isn't brownish in real life.

The first square was crocheted with a 2.5 mm hook (USA size C), the second one with a 5mm hook (USA size H... which was WAY quicker)
The smaller square doesn't reach 4 inches (it's 6cm wide : almost 2.5 inches) ... it's even far from this. It's also quite thick and sturdy. The bigger one is holy but has a nice floppy drape, it reaches 8 cm (slightly more than 3 inches), which I think is Ok even if the pattern calls for 10cm wide squares, I'll just play with the L size pattern.

I like the way the fabric of the bigger square behaves, and I want to use this yarn as I'd like to have someting to match my skirt... My problem is : how to join-as-you-go plain old squares ? I know how to do it with lacy squares but here...

Joining-as-I-go

I tried come up with a join-as-you-go method and here's what I did :

• At the end of square 1 I didn't cut the yarn, crocheted 12,
• crocheted 1 and started square 2 on that chain stitch,
• for every round, crocheted the last stitch of the third corner carrying the satrting chain of 12 on the wrong side,
• crocheted the last row of square 2 inserting crochet hook in the back loop of the last row of square 1.

eated a ridge between the 2 squares. What do you think? I don't know if I like it.

Besides, For square 3 I didn't crochet the yarn left between the squares : it creates a bump on the wrong side when you carry it along, I closed the last stitch of square 2, left a tail without cutting the yarn and started square 3. No bumps.

Pics (color is more accurate here) :

right side:

wrong side :

Those are not real back loop single crochet as I insert the crochet into the back loop and the body of the stitch (into the chore of the part of the body that looks like a V).
It's Sturdier but looks less floppy.
I don't know why my squares are curvy (they inherited it from me ? ) I swear I make sure the corner is done properly!
I'll try a few more squares and if I don't like it... Well my daughter will have a new purse.

Hesitating

I must admit I stopped working on my cardigan, I'm not satisfied with the look and feel of my swatch, I really wanted to use this yarn but i'm not satisfied. I'm still looking for the "good" yarn.

This is officially the end of the experiment... I frogged what I've done and added it to a new project