Create-a-holic Writer

I’ve been a crochet-a-holic for a little over four years and now that I’m in the groove, I like to switch things up a bit. Last year I discovered a hat pattern on the Lion Brand site that incorporates the prettiest square motifs, so I made this hat.

The motif was so much fun to make that I decided I wanted to do more with it. The image of a sweater popped into my mind, so I chose a larger hook and set about making a bunch of squares that I could lay out into some semblance of a basic sweater. Below, you’ll see the results as well as some step-by-step info in case you want to try making your own version.
Donna’s Hat Motif Sweater
Here’s the link to the original Squares Hat pattern at the Red Heart website, but I’ve also repeated the square pattern below for your convenience: https://www.redheart.com/files/patterns/pdf/WR1621.pdf

Materials:

✗ Lion Brand’s Vanna’s Choice yarn, 2 balls of 860-400 Oatmeal and 5 balls of 860-403 Barley

✗ P/10.00 mm crochet hook; yarn needle

✗ Each square measures approx. 7 inches x 7 inches

✗ Make 28 squares in total: 9 squares for sweater front, 9 for sweater back, 1 for each shoulder, 4 for each sleeve.

✗Sweater is about a medium size fit. (To enlarge, use rows of four squares for the body instead of rows of three, and use rows of three squares for the sleeves instead of rows of two.)

SQUARE:

Using Oatmeal: Ch 8; join with a sl st to form a ring.

Rnd 1: Ch 1, 16 sc in ring; join with a sl st in first sc.

Rnd 2: Ch 4, [dc in next sc, ch 1] 15 times; join with a sl st in 3rd ch of ch-4. Fasten off and attach Barley yarn.

Rnd 3: Ch 1, sc in same st as joining, * 2 sc in next sp, ch 3, skip next dc, 2 sc in next sp **, sc in next dc; rep from * around, end at **; join in first sc.

Rnd 4: Ch 1, * 9 dc in next ch-3 sp, skip next 2 sc, sl st in next sc, (4 dc, ch 3, 4 dc) all in next ch-3 sp, skip next 2 sc **, sl st in next sc; rep from * around, end at **; join in first ch-1.

Rnd 5: Sl st in first 4 dc, [sl st in 5th dc of 9-dc group, ch 5, (2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc, ch 3, 2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc) all in next ch-3 sp, ch 5, skip next 9 sts] 4 times, join in 5th sl st. Fasten off.

Once you have made 28 squares, follow the construction layout as shown in photos below.

(1) Working with 18 squares, use a yarn needle to fasten the squares side-by-side into rows of three (see red box). (Make sure you are working on the wrong side of the sweater during construction. Note: To fasten squares I used a plain sewing stitch and just did my best to match up and stitch the chains together.)

(2) A block of nine squares make up the front (see purple box below) and another block of nine makes up the back. So sew together each row of three, one row at a time until you’ve made a block of nine. This is your front. Repeat the same process with your other three rows of three to make another block of nine, which is your back.

(3) You will use your two shoulder squares to attach the front block to the back block (see green boxes below). Still working on the wrong side, sew a shoulder square to either side of the top row of your front block. Then fasten the other end of each shoulder square to the back block. The middle opening is your neckline.

(4) As you can see in the photo below, I finished the neckline with one row of single crochet in oatmeal, then because I found it to be a little bit too wide for me, I gathered it slightly by weaving a length of oatmeal yarn around the stitches and then pulling it and tying a small bow.

(5) Now, it’s time to work on the sleeves. Each sleeve is comprised of a block of four squares fastened together into two rows of two. So using your batch of eight squares, stitch together two squares at a time so you end up with a stack of four rows of two.

(6) Then take two of your rows of two and fasten them together into a block of four squares. This is your first sleeve. Repeat again using your other stack of two rows to make your second sleeve.

(7) The photo below left shows where you will attach the first sleeve (again, always working on the wrong side of the project). Take one of your sleeves (see red box) and line up the center (midpoint between the two sleeve squares) with the center of the shoulder motif (see green line). Use either markers or safety pins to attach securely, then stitch the sleeve to the body. Repeat the exact process by attaching your second sleeve to the other side of your sweater body.

(8) The photo below right is what the sweater will look like after both sleeves have been attached. The red line indicates where you will fold the sweater to match up where the blue lines are shown. The blue lines indicate where you will sew the body and sleeves together to complete the sweater.

(9) The photo below shows the sleeves and sides stitched together. The red lines show the areas that were sewn together. I left an opening on either side where the green lines are. I wanted it to fit tightly to the waist and then have a “tunic” effect at the bottom, with the slits on either side. To finish the edges, I single crocheted in oatmeal around the entire bottom, including up and down each slit.

(10) I also finished both sleeve edges with one round of single crochet in oatmeal.

 
(11) I used the steam setting on my iron to gently press it. Here are some photos of the finished sweater. Not great pictures—hubby wasn’t around and it’s not easy taking full-length selfies!!!

Last but not least—my colour inspiration: my best pal, Otis!

The bottom line is that you can make a sweater out of pretty much any motif you like. It’s just a matter of making as many of them as you need to fit a basic layout in your size and then attaching them together. Squares are the easiest but you can also use hexagons and even circles. There are no boundaries to your imagination.