Here it is people, my Mainly Grey Sweater. Ta-daaah!!!!

I first blogged about it on 31 October, and the yarn was bought way back in May so this has been the longest that I’ve worked on, or planned for, a crocheted sweater. Yarnbombs and hospital visits happened and of course the fact that it consists of 58 squares (!) made it a lengthy project. But it’s done now and I really like it!

The nitty-gritty of the sweater is as follows:

Pattern: Driftwood, a free pattern on the Lionbrand website which you can find here

Yarn: 17 balls of Garnstudio Drops Merino Extra fine in shade 04 (medium gray) and one ball of Sublime Extra Fine Merino DK in redcurrent. I never expected to use 17 balls for this. At £3.10 each that’s £52.70. That’s more that I would pay in the shops for a sweater, but what can you do? No-one said my crochet obsession was going to be cheap. On the up side, I now have a handmade crochet sweater unique to me, so I guess that’s priceless.

Hook: 5 mm

Construction: 58 squares of 11.5 cm x 11.5 cm, two mesh side panels and two mesh sleeve panels

All of the 58 squares had to be blocked before I could sew them together. It was a big job, but so worth it.

When the sewing together was done, it was time to add the finishing touches. The pattern said I have to do a round of SC followed by a row of slip stitches all around the neck, sleeves and bottom edge. I sort of did what they said….

I did the row of SC in gray as instructed, but then added my HDC of red. Ooo wee, I had been waiting so long for this! The red makes my grey siiiiing!

But wait, there’s more. For my last row, again in gray, I did SC, sl st, SC, sl st etc. all round. (I didn’t want to end with red as it would be too obvious, so I needed to finish it all off with another row in gray.) When I turned my work around, I saw that the wrong side of that SC, sl st, SC, sl st row was actually more interesting than the right side, so I made the back, the front. In other words my edging was done as follows:

Row 1: With wrong side facing, SC one row. Turn. (This is as the pattern instructs me to do.)

Row 2: With right side facing, HDC in red. Turn. (The photo above).

Row 3: With wrong side facing, *SC, sl st*.

This photo shows you the end result. A spidery, lacy row of grey over the red stitches.

This is the neckline of my sweater. I love that intricate grey lines over the red.

The pattern calls for mesh inserts on the sides, for size M and upwards, and elongated triangle shape inserts for the sleeves. I think this is genius as it turns the square sweater into something more shapely.

Here you can see the top of the sleeve inserts. They taper to a point towards the bottom edge of the sleeve.

This photo shows off the side mesh insert. When I was making the inserts I thought it would be very obvious, but it really isn’t.

The construction of this sweater is extremely adaptable. All you need are 58 squares of 11.5cm x 11.5cm each. That means this pattern can work with granny squares, or any type of square motif as long as it’s 11.5 cm squared! You’ll just need the Driftwood pattern for the mesh inserts. Isn’t that great? Here we have a basic crochet sweater pattern, made up of squares that is wide, wide, wide open to creative interpretation. It’s the kind of pattern you will go back to time and time again. It’s also excellent for beginners.

I’m thinking of making a similar sweater in a summery cotton using one of Jan Eaton’s 200 Crochet Blocks patterns. Can you see it? It would be really great in bright summery colour(s).

Next time when I see a sale on DK cotton yarn, I’m going to buy 17 balls. Yes, my love of crochet is overriding my budget constraints. I’m sure you understand.