Capelets For My Girls

The warmer weather has brought much hustle and bustle to our household.  We keep a fairly large vegetable garden out back, and we are also heavily involved in our local community garden.  Every Wednesday night and Saturday morning, you can find either my husband or I out there gardening with friends.  Every afternoon during out toddler's nap, I'm outside in the back planting, weeding, harvesting, and observing our own garden.  I have to say that at this time of year, growing thing trumps yarncrafting, except on rainy days.

That said, I do have a couple of very special projects to share...one created this spring and the other the year before.

My daughter middle child received her First Holy Communion this year, and like for her older sister the year before, I made her a keepsake capelet to wear over her dress.  We sat down together and went through the Ravelry pattern database to find something that she liked.  As you can see, she loves all things frilly, lacy, and girly so she chose the pattern Chanson En Crochet by Mari Lynn Patrick.  The pattern calls for bulky yarn and a large hook to fit an adult, so we scaled down by using DK yarn and a G hook.  This pattern had a very extensive errata, so if you try it out, make sure you get the errata too!

The year before, for my oldest daughter, I didn't give her the chance to pick out a pattern, because I wanted it to be a surprise for her.

Obviously this one is knit rather than crochet, but it fits her style and personality very well.  Most of the time she likes her clothing to be very simple, though she does have her moments of grandeur and pomp in her style.  This pattern is simply called Knit Capelet and it was written by Mary Jane Protus.  Once again, this pattern called for bulky yarn, but I wanted to use something lighter weight, so I used DK and added two lace repeats.

I really hope that my girls will keep these capelets and, if they have children of their own, pass them down the line.