The Hair Shirt

J started a pattern for a crocheted hoodie about a year ago. The pattern specified Bernat Chuncky but J fell in love with Bernat Alpaca Natural Blend. I tried to discourage her because I knew just by the look of it it wouldn’t be an easy yarn for a beginner but nothing doing. She got the hoodie pattern from the Bernat site unfortunately it’s no longer available.

She had finished the back and most of the front but got frustrated with the shaping of the front neck. Part of the problem is it’s very hard to see your stitches with this particular yarn, so it’s very hard to keep count. She put it in a bag and it sat in my office for almost a year. I had just finished up a afghan for a new grandniece (sorry I forgot to take pictures) and was out of things to crochet so decided to see if I could finish it up for her.

Turns out that she had the neck shaping all finished, I can’t remember what the problem was that had her stumped. All it really needed was sleeves. So I read and reread the rather confusing instructions and then just did what I thought was best, turns out that is exactly what I was supposed to do. She wanted the sleeves to be ¾ length so I had her try it on from time to time until I got them where she wanted them.

I have to say that I hated working with the stuff, it was itchy (that's the reason for the title of this post) and had it not been for my experience at crochet I would have probably thrown in the towel as well because it was so hard to see the stitches and did I mention the stuff it itchy. I would not recommend this yarn to anyone who’s not at least an intermediate crocheter and if you react to wool then you wouldn't want to try this yarn either.

The pattern was a bit confusing in places but I would use it again.