WHAT DID I CROCHET?🧶#21|Striped Cropped T-Shirt

_{Image designed by me with my photos and the Canva app.}
Hi, guys! Remember the cropped T-shirt I mentioned I was working on in my last post?

_{Guess what, guys? After making the top, I wasn't sure it'd fit my outfit because I plan to wear Crocs with my ripped boyfriend jeans. It seemed like the mesh might look a bit off so just in case, I decided to make something else. I'm currently working on another cropped top with the double crochet stitch that'll look like a little T-shirt. I can't wait to show you guys the finished look!}
The post

Well, I’m about to show you how it went.

The backstory to the top is that:

I wanted something colourful,
I had to pick from my yarn stash at home, and
I wanted the dominant colour to be a dark contrast to the light blue jeans I would wear.

Now, I didn’t have a stash of yarn with many colours having many balls. Luckily, the colours I had many balls of were going to fit what I had in mind, but there was still some work to do because I needed to plan the colour arrangement.

The colours were dark salmon, which is like deep peach, light blue, dark blue (navy blue) and cream (off white). Now, I only had one ball of cream but the plan was to use it sparingly, as a demarcation between the sets of colours so I knew it would be enough. I was going to make the top with horizontal stripes.

I love the combination of light blue and navy blue, but I wanted a colour in the family of red to give it a different look, so I decided on dark blue, light blue, and dark salmon. After two sets of it, I’d do 1 row of the cream, then start all over again.

I decided to do a swatch to see how it would look.

I loved it and even began to get excited!🤗

I didn’t start by doing calculations with my measurements and the swatch because I was making it for myself — I could just easily place it on my body and check the fit.

I ended up making it too wide. After 8 rows, I reduced it a bit, starting the next row on the third stitch and ending on the fourth row from the end (leaving 3 stitches on each end). That was better than starting again.

I was making use of a 3mm hook for the top so the stitches were not loose. It was going to be a straight and loose cropped top, not body-hugging. This means that I didn’t have to stress about increases and decreases.

On the third day, I was already at the neckline. I made a round neck. Before the end of the day, I’d completed the front panel.

I began the back panel the next day. It was the same process as the back, only that I didn’t have to leave three stitches at each end since I began with the right number. Also, the neckline was higher than the front. I should have taken three days but I didn’t get any work done on the second day so I eventually finished on the fourth day —Friday night.

After completing both panels, I joined them at the shoulder before joining them at the sides.

Now, because the top was not body-hugging and I just made it straight, there was going to be a bit that would come down at the arms so I didn’t bother adding more rows for the arms. I only went round the armholes once with single crochet in dark blue. I would have added one row of double crochet but my dark blue yarn was almost finished so I just left it. By the time I did this, I’d already finished with the neckline. I’d done a little single crochet ribbing in dark blue. After the single crochet round the armhole, the top was complete! I left the sewing of ends for the next morning before I start preparing to go for the hangout. Gosh, it was so pretty!