First time crocheting a garment and a pair of Clyde shorts

This post documents two adventures at once: my first crochet garment and first time using Holstgarn coast and the make of a linen pair of Elizabeth Suzanne Clyde shorts.

The crochet short sleeve cardigan

I wanted to love crochet for a very long time, and with every piece I started or every sample I tried, I just felt that it’s not me, don’t like it, what can you do about it? I made some amigurumi pieces before, but that was about it.

I was surprised by this pattern recipe by Santa Pazienzia, in which she described how to make a raglan sweater with crochet. Once she explains everything, it’s very simple actually, you just increase at the raglan seams, just as you would do for a knitted raglan. As a note to self, I should modify this recipe to add more stitches to the front pieces to make a C cup fit better.

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The Holstgarn yarn, a mix of cotton and wool, is more stringy, less bouncy than their Supersoft quality, which is 100% wool. I ordered two cones of this, and I felt that this Cantaloupe yellow one was stringier than the Harbour blue one. I am yet to use the Harbour in a project, but the swatches look a bit different. I held it double for this project, and it was quite quick to make.

The Clyde shorts

I always admired the Elizabeth Suzanne pieces, and I was so happy when she released her patterns on her new website for home sewers to sew their own. I am very inspired by her business model, and she’s done a lot of things people haven’t done before, from being transparent about cost, her business, reframing her business plan after Covid, selling fabric remnants for a zero waste manufacturing process and the list goes on.

The shorts were easy to make as the instructions were clear. I was surprised that different sewing allowances were used on different part of the pants, and then I realized how genius that is. You can purchase her patterns here: https://elizabethsuzannstudio.com/collections/fabric-patterns-kits/Digital-Sewing-Patterns

The fit is ok, the linen I made them in is quite sheer, the bum gets a little saggy after a few hours of wear, but with working from home this year, who cares.

I am not entirely convinced by the length of these, maybe a tad shorter would have been better. And in the future I should alter the pattern a bit to allow for the cuff, this way they’ll be more comfortable to wear biking.

That’s about it. Happy to make these things and happy to share them with you.

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