My comfort cardi

This is the first project of 2016 that I have tackled and it is a stash buster. I had lots of pinks left over from making baby things for friends and mum had quite a lot of red so I thought 'why not'. I made my first adult cardigan at the end of last year and I was very surprised at how easy it was to make which just inspired me to design my own.

I started with working out what sizes I wanted my cardigan to be which basically meant that I measured myself and added a couple of inches for the width.

I then had to decide on what stitch I was going to use. To be honest I didn't think about this for very long as I was of the mindset that the stitch should be really simple because I was planning on doing decreases on the sleeves and thought either dc, tr or htr would be the best idea rather than doing anything too fancy. Also with all the colours I was planning on using I didn't think I should do anything to over the top or it could end up being marvelously hideous. I finalized on half trebles as they are pretty stitches and would make the cardigan thick and warm but still give it a nice drape. As I used all double crochet wool I used a 3.5m hook this gives me a good tension as I am quite a loose crocheter. As I went along I just made a note of how many stitches I used rather than doing this in advance. I don't know if this is the normal way to design something in crochet but it worked for me.

Back showing colour repeat.

Then I just got started and began crocheting. I decided to try to stick to a colour repeat as I thought that this would make my cardigan less random looking and more cohesive. this seemed to work and I have to say this is probably the thing that took me the longest to work out as I really wanted the bright read around where you would have cuffs (even though I didn't add these).

I worked:
7 Rows in bright red
3 Rows in lilac
5 Rows in pale pink
7 Rows in dark red
3 Rows in multi pinks
5 Rows in salmon pink

Once I had finished creating all of the pieces for my cardigan I then just needed to join it. I opted for a slip stitch as this just made it look nice and neat from the front. I had already decided finish off using crab stitch (reverse double crochet) all around the front as I really liked this on the other cardigan I did, as it was a simple way to finish it off and also looked really pretty. I used the bright red again as it just again helped it all come together.

pocket attached to the cardigan

Once that was done I tried it on and it fit! Whoop I was super impressed I have to say as I didn't think it would really (even though I had measured). I then decided it needed some pockets as what is a comfort cardigan without pockets? I went wild and used a large square from 200 crochet blocks for blankets, throws and afghans by Jan Eaton (Pg 51)  just using all of the colours I had used in my cardigan and I did a crab stitch around the outside edge.

I joined using a surface crochet stitch which just catches the wool from the inside as I wasn't sure how else to do it but I thought it worked really well and looked surprisingly neat from the inside. I like it when I can make things neat!

So here is my finished cardigan:

I am unsure whether I think it is beautiful or hideous or just an amalgamation of the two. What do you think? I am very impressed with the neckline as I think I did the decreases well. I have also only taken it off to wash it, so for me it is the perfect comfort cardi. I will write up the pattern when I have some time for those of you that want it.