Slow Learner

It's finally finished. And yes, it is entered in the fair. (Warning: Rant. You might want to skip down to the **) It was the pattern from hell. I will never, ever buy another book by this crochet designer. I must be a very slow learner because this is the third book of hers that I've purchased and I've been unhappy with each of them. The photos are always beautiful and I love at least one item in each book. But the patterns always turn out different from the pictured article. At first I thought it was just me and how I was reading the pattern. It's not. I think whomever makes the samples *fixes* problems with the pattern as they are making the item so it ends up looking better. Great for the book; bad for the person trying to follow the directions.

The patterns are difficult to follow - she assumes you know what she means without her taking the time to accurately explain it. I never did figure out what the h*** she was talking about on the front neckline. So I designed my own. But the thing that annoyed me most about this pattern is how the author cheated. The picture in the book shows the most beautiful aran baby sweater, with cables and diamonds and crosses. She embroidered them on. Not crochet. The cables that show on my red sweater are the only ones that are actually crocheted. I've done aran sweaters before so I know it's possible to crochet this design. But it would be a difficult pattern to write. Too difficult for this author apparently. (Hmmm, a challenge. Maybe I should write my own pattern.) I'm really disappointed in this book. Ok, end of rant.
**But I love the finished sweater. I stayed up until 3 a.m. trying to get it done. Got up at 10 this morning to sew on the buttons and decided I didn't like the embroidery on the sleeves. So I ripped it all off and just left the crocheted cables. It's a little plain if you compare it with the book design, but I like it just fine. And in the end, that's all that really matters.