[Review] Crochet Pullover & Hawaii Trip

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I had a privilege to test a crochet pullover by Miss Banana Crafts and I brought this project for my Hawaii trip.

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How is everyone surviving this winter? Here in Chicago, we are currently getting THE COLDEST in history! Yesterday January 30th Wednesday, it recorded that Chicago was colder than Antarctica, Mount Everest, and other colder areas. That’s just crazy, isn’t it?

First Time Ever…in Hawaii!

Back in December of last year, Chicago was pretty cold at that time too, but I got out of Chicago and went to Hawaii for family vacation! It was my first time going to Hawaii, and it was just AMAZING. Surrounded by beautiful nature that God had created, I had really great time there.

Weather was not so great though. I didn’t know until I heard from this from my father, but Hawaii does not have winter or typical season we get here on the mainland! Instead, it has dry season and wet season. December is in wet season, so while we were there, it rained everyday. It didn’t rain all day long; sometimes it was couple hours, sometimes it was just passing by and quick shower, and sometimes it was pouring down crazy. However, because it rained on one side and you see sunshine from other side, you can see rainbows so frequently! I’ve never seen that many rainbows in a day!

Warm but Chilly Sometimes

Temperature was little bit on the chilly side. It did get to 70’s and 80’s during the day time, but in the morning was maybe in the 60’s by the sea shore with windchill. I knew it was a good idea to bring a sweater with me! More accurately, WIP sweater I was working on before going to Hawaii. I was working on Pop Pullover by Karina from Miss Banana Crafts. I had a privilege to be a tester for this amazing pattern!

Crochet Pullover Using Caron Cake

This pattern used Caron Cake from Yarnspirations (exclusively sold at Michael’s) which I always wanted to give it a try. When this yarn came out, I hesitated to put my hands on because I didn’t know how the self-striping gonna look like. I love most of the color options that Caron Cake offered and colors looked great seeing from the top, but I just couldn’t imagine how finished result was gonna look like.

I’ve seen patterns using here and there (and I think I had many project ideas in my head at that time, so I couldn’t really pay attention for new patterns as much as I wanted) but nothing really struck me…then I came across Karina’s Instagram maybe not too long before she announced about this pattern. I just fell in love how simple it looked and I get to use Caron Cake! She was looking for tester, and I immediately signed up. It was my second time pattern testing, and it’s always a great experience.

Simple Yet Great Details

Pop Pullover is made with moss stitch (or a.k.a. seed stitch). You only need to make 2 panels which already include sleeves. I love patterns like this because less seaming! (especially seaming for sleeves is one of my biggest challenge)

When you join new ball, it looks much better if you can join with the same color as your end color. I was lucky that I didn’t have a problem with different end colors. I was able to join new ball smoothly. Also if you look at the upper arm, you can see coral color is mixed in with neutral colors when seaming. I don’t think you can avoid this unless you were able to make the arms and shoulders with 1 color on both panels. It bothered me in the beginning, but I don’t mind now because that’s what makes this crochet pullover unique. Overall, stripe colors turned out to look very similar on both panels and look great! Another unique thing about this is that there’s an option to add a hoodie, which is great feature as well.

I love the details that moss stitch creates. It uses simple stitches, but it looks little intricate.

Many Colors to Choose From

I chose the color “Strawberry Trifle” that has mix of neutral colors and coral colors. Choosing a color was difficult decision to make because there were also my favorite color blues. Neutrals looked gorgeous too, but I have many clothes with those colors so I decided to go with Strawberry Trifle. I normally don’t wear this color, but I wanted to include a color other than neutrals and blues in my wardrobe (also I found out later that coral is the Pantone Color of 2019!) and I’m glad I did!

Why didn’t I lay my hands on this yarn much earlier? I should’ve just went for it! Every time colors change, I got so excited. My thought went “Oh pretty color! I wonder what colors come after this?” Even though you can tell what colors are included in the yarn, you can’t really tell which colors come next until you try it. Maybe you can… but I couldn’t! I couldn’t tell if colors are in order each set (I think there are 5 different colors in each ball) or 5 colors are in line randomly, etc… Now that I’ve worked with Caron Cake, I want to make more projects using this yarn!

Beautiful Sunrise

Hawaii trip was 4 days 5 nights stay, and every morning, my family and I tried to go see a sunrise. We failed to see all 4 mornings (technically 3 mornings…1st morning it rained, and other 3 mornings we couldn’t make it in time when sun started rising), but the view of sun at the beach B E A U T I F U L. I’ve seen sun in early morning in the past, but the view from Hawaii was far beyond the best one. I think the sound of waves makes and surrounded by nature are what makes the best for me. During each visit to the beach in the morning, it was pretty chilly. When we went to the beach for the first time, I didn’t have any sweater on. My sister and I were holding on to each other to warm ourselves.

After that morning, I determined to finish my crochet pullover so I can enjoy more at the morning beach as well as photo shoot for this beauty! I only had to make few more rows and seam 2 pieces together. This seaming though…however…it felt like I took longer time to finish seaming than usual. Many of the sweater patterns require to seam arms to the body, but like I said earlier, this pattern doesn’t need to do that. Normally you would seam 6 locations, but this one is only 4 locations. You would seam underside of arm and side of the body together, which takes longer time to seam.

In Beautiful Hawaii, Beautiful Crochet Pullover

I had such a fun time making it as well as photo shoot. I have 3 younger siblings, and all of them were taking self-portraits. If I didn’t have this crochet pullover, I don’t think I took any self-portraits.

I want to thank my sister, who is very talented in taking photos for taking photos of finished piece!

You can purchase this amazing pattern from Karina’s Etsy shop or Lovecrochet website! Check out Miss Banana Crafts for more information!

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