Fresh off my recent knitting success, I decided to give a crochet sweater pattern I'd been eyeing a go!
This is Iron Lamb's Granny Go Round Jumper pattern, which is a top-down, seamless raglan-style crochet sweater with full sleeves that are gathered into ribbed cuffs.
It's done in granny stitch (clusters of three double-crochet stitches), and is intended to be striped.
Iron Lamb's patterns came on my radar after I saw several other sewists crochet her designs in the past few years. Laura at The Specky Seamstress, Jewel from Jewel Makes, and Natasja Schwarz all made the Iron Lamb Faraway Jumper, a beautiful round yoke crocheted sweater which very well may be next on my list after this success!
Back to this project, though: the Granny Go Round Jumper pattern was very easy to follow and it was pretty quick to crochet!
Here's my project on Ravelry.
It was the perfect combination of interesting enough but also almost meditatively repetitive so it could easily be crocheted while chatting or watching TV.
I liked how there were stitch counts (well, counts for clusters of stitches) throughout so you could easily keep track to make sure you were doing the increases properly.
Claudine at Iron Lamb has some very helpful video tutorials on Instagram if you need a bit of guidance. I definitely used them at a few key stages while crocheting this sweater.
I made gauge with a size G/4mm hook and worsted weight yarn I had in my stash even though the pattern calls for DK weight yarn.
The yarn is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Tweed, wool with fun tweedy bits of black, brown and natural color throughout that give it a nice heathered texture.
For colors, rather than change every row, I went with a three-color scheme, all Wool of the Andes Tweed.
The main color, which I used for the ribbing and two thirds of the rows is barn door heather, a reddish purple. I incorporated stripes every third row of apple blossom heather, a faded pinky color, and olive heather, which is a mustard-y greenish color.
I carried the purple yarn as I went, but cut the pink and mustard stripes. So lots of ends to weave in when I was finished, but not as many as there might have been if I hadn't carried the purple!
I added an extra row of ribbing to the sleeves and hem; I wanted them to be slightly deeper.
For my Granny Go Round Jumper, I chose to crochet a size 2XL (the pattern goes up to size 4XL, designed for up to a 57 inch bust).
My sweater ended up being bigger than the pattern said it would be (maybe my gauge wasn't as spot-on as I thought it was?!), but I love how boxy and dramatic it is. I think the boxy-ness is balanced by the cropped length.
Next time I might size down, or maybe just use the suggested yarn weight!
I am thoroughly smitten with this sweater! The colors, the shape, the sleeves, the coziness... and very proud of it!
Expect more crochet from me in the future.
