My Crochet Comeback: Easy Granny Square Cardigan For Crochet Beginners❀

Can you believe I haven’t crocheted in 15 years? Crazy, right? Anyways, I decided on a cardigan. I thought it would be a fun challenge and a great addition to my wardrobe.  I went with a daisy granny square pattern because it’s so iconic and cute.

Don’t worry if cardigan seems like a big project for a crochet beginner. Making granny squares is super easy and it’s a great way to practice your crochet skills. 

Since most of my crochet happens while I’m commuting from A to B or during weekends, I’m pretty happy how quickly it was made, considering I had to make an extra six squares to extend my sleeves. 

Reminder: Be mindful of my yarn calculations when crocheting. Instead of buying 100m skeins, I should opt for a brand that offers the same quality and colour in 140m+ skeins that are cheaper and easier to work with.

For blocking, I found mist blocking to be the best. I gently misted ( with spray bottle) each square and laid them flat to dry. If necessary, I carefully pinned them to the desired dimensions before misting. This type of blocking is my preferred method as it provides the right amount of moisture without exposing the yarn to excessive heat like steaming or accidentally overstretching with wet blocking.

Daisy Granny Square

I went with cotton-merino wool blend for a cardigan vs pure cotton.

I think it’s a fantastic blend because it’s warm, soft, breathable and durable, not to mention it also has better odour resistance compared to pure cotton. Plus, it has great drape, retains its shape well, and is versatile enough to wear in late summer when temperatures are a bit cooler.

Description

Round 1: Using yellow Ch 5 and slip stitch them into a circle (don’t count st)

Round 2: 12 sc

Fasten off and weave in the ends. Join new colour. In my case white.

Round 3: Ch 4 ( counts as first) + 11 hdc

Round 4: Ch 3 ( counts as first) + 4 dc to form a five double crochet cluster ( see img.)

All together you will have 12 petals / clusters. Fasten off and weave in the ends.Join new colour. In my case blue.

Each side is[3dc, ch 2, 3dc ] [3sc]  [3sc] [3dc, ch 2, 3dc ] 

Round 5:  In the gap between Ch3 ( counts as first) + 2 dc – this forms a shell. There are two shells on each side, which form a corner.

Corner: 3 dc + Ch2 + 3 double crochet shell

Round 6: Ch3 ( counts as first) + 2sc, repeat 2 more times and than corner.

Corner: 2sc + Ch2 + 2sc

Each side is [2sc, ch 2, 2dc ] [2sc]  [3sc]  [3sc]  [2sc, ch 2, 2sc ]

At first, I needed 45 squares for my project, but then I decided to make the sleeves longer because I didn’t like how they looked. As a result, I ended up using 51 squares in total for my height – 175cm.

Cardigan Layout

Back, Fronts and Sleeves

Entire cardigan is made from 12 squares for each sleeve, 15 squares for the back and front left and right panels each made of 6 squares. The parts were not block assembled, but rather, the squares were blocked independently during the process.

To join all cardigan parts I chose sc ( single crochet)  instead of slip stitch since it made squares fit together a bit better and slightly increase the cardigan size.

Cuffs and Ribbing

Final touches

After all cardigan parts are joined, I made the ribbing around and on the sleeves.

I used a 3.5mm hook, and made a single crochet ribbing in the back loop. Here’s how I did it:

First I did sleeve ribbing: attach yarn to the bottom of the sleeve and chain 8. 

Row 1: make 1 single crochet into the 2nd chain from the hook ( not including the loop on the hook!) and make sc into each of the remaining  chains. Last stitch is joined it to the cardigan sleeve. 

Row 2: chain 1 and turn

Row 3:  single crochet into the back loop of each of the  stitches 

Repeat until the end of the sleeve size.

Then bottom and side panels of the cardigan with Ch 10 and also sc ribbing in the back loop.

Very good explanation for attaching ribbing to a project I found  here

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