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Have you ever felt like making a sweater or a cardigan but just couldnt get the sizing right?
Either it ends up being too big ot too small, better yet, if you want to make a cardigan or a sweater for a friend but you just cannot get their size right? It’s annoying, i know.
I personally cannot count how many times i have started a finished a crochet sweater or cardigan but had to take it appart because the size was either just too big or too small. The feeling is hoooorible!!!
I wouldnt wish that on anyone, so, this is why i decided to share a trick with you that i use to determine how to crochet cardigan/sweater all sizes. It is a life saver and time saver too.
It is easy to modiffy and play around with. You can make it bigger or smaller, witht the trick i am about to teach you, you are in charge. You state the fate of your sweater or cardigan. LOL!!
How to determine Size
Well, its rather simple really. Do you have a favourite shirt that fits you just right? Probably how you want this sweater or cardigan to fit you? Go and get it.
Oh, and dont forget that measuring tape, it will be crucial for this first step.
By the way, you want to make sure the top fits well at the neck. So an off-shoulder top wouldnt be ideal right now. I would suggest a t-shirt. Even a pole neck would do the trick, as long as you like the fit.
Measuring the Neck
So, we are gonna start with measuring the neck to determine the size of the rest of the crochet cardigan or sweater.
So, be sure to have:
Crochet hook– for the crocheting, duh!
Yarn- to bring your crochet cardigan/sweater to life hehehe
measuring tape– to measure the neck
Note book- i am sure you are ewondering why, we will take notes, its a whole class LOL!
Pen – to write the notes with obviously
oh, not forgeting a calculator, but if you are good at some quick maths unlike me then you can always skip this bit. or your phone can do the trick just fine.
To begin, lay your shirt flat on the ground and grab yout measuring tape. the focus right now is the neck of the shirt, so be sure this area is as flat as it can be. with your measuring tape, measure the neck line of the top. Doesnt make sense check out the picture below.
Just before we go any further, there is need for a guage swatcg. Not sure what a guage swatch is? well, just a quick summary, it is a way of measuring tension. as you know, we crocheters holf our yarn and hook differently meaning the inches off stitches i would have over a 100 chain would be different to another crocheter. Personally i hold my yarn loosely while other crafters have a tighter grip.
I do hope that made sense LOL, anyways, so moving on…….
Prepare a guage swatch
you can always use this to refer for future projects so we will be making this swathc for long term. I would suggest to chain a 100 plus 2 to begin your row. Double crochet( assuming that is the stitch you want to use in your crochet cardigan/sweater all sizes) into the third loop from the hook, and doublr crochet all the way down. do this till your swatch is about 6 inches, but for this project, one line is all we need.
now we can move on to the shirt…….
So, see how the measuring tape is located at bother corners of my shirt. that is what you want to do. But, keep in mind, we are working with yarn so this might be slightly bigger, if you would like a smaller look i would suggest you remove 2-3 inches.
Likw in my case, i got 8 inches, and i know it does not properly show on the image (sorry about that)
so, taking my 8 inchs from the shirt neck, i will go to my guage swatch and place my measuring tape over te guage swatch. Check how many stitches fall under 8 inches on my guage swatch.
see the picture below ey……
Next you will count how many stitches make up the number of neck inches you got or want. In my case that would be 8 inches. I ended up with 30. Note it is easier when the number is even.
Now this is where that notebook comes in handy LOL. go ahead and write the number down. this 3o will determine the bak of our crochet sweatre/cardigan all sizes.
so you want to have a similar diagram drawn in your note boook. the 30 is the back on the neck, the two 15 in the front are my front pannels for my crochet cardigan assumig i am making a cardigan, if it is a sweater then the front will also be 30.
The arms, are the 22 portion. How do we arrive at 22?
Take one of the front portion, (15 for me in this case) and devide it by two. it obviously gave me an odd number, 7.5, so i settled for seven (7). so now take the 7 and add it to one of the front pannels. 15 + 7 and that gives us 22 which will be our arms!!!!!
But thats not it……hold on
So now we have a total of 104 stitches. but since out crochet cardigan / sweater alll sizes has some corners we need to add extra stitches for those, not to worry, it is 4 for everyone.
To the 104 stitches, i will add 4 for the turning corners giving me a total of 108 stitches. to begin, i will make a chain og=f 108 plus one to turn
in the second hook from my chain, i will place my first double crochet (dc), and in the next 14 (Note we have started working the front pannel which is the first 15 stitches, after the first 15 stitches are done, we will work into one of the etra 4 chains we made, in that next chain, we will place a double crochet, chain 2, then place another double crochet. this has indicated a seperation from the front pannel going onto the arm section.
in the nexr 22 stitches we will do the same, work our 22 dc till the next stitch where we will do the next seperation of dc into the stitch chain of 2 then another dc. do this for the remaining stitches. ch 1 at the end and turn. you will continue with this pattern, increasing in the 4 corners. and that is your yoke!! This is how to crochet sweater/cardigan all sizes like a pro.
Have some comments or something didnt add up? leave a coment below!!
God bless, till next time
happy crafting!
