Herdine Cabled Crochet Cardigan - New! November 26, 2020 03:00

Can a crochet designer have an opus? I looked it up...
One definition of opus is: "any artistic work, especially one on a large scale."

So, yes—a crochet designer can have an opus. And designing Herdine was definitely one for me! Crocheting it was relatively straight-forward, but there were a lot of sections of this design that—while I'm experienced with creating them with knitted fabric—were completely new to me in crochet. Let's take a look...

The Back and Fronts are worked with a narrow hem of single-crochet through the back loop worked first. Then the stitches for the body are worked along the selvedge edge of the ribbed hem, and worked in the crochet cabled lattice pattern. The sides of the back and fronts have waist shaping.

In addition to the all-over lattice cable pattern, the fronts have an additional cable panel, as well as some spacious slanted pockets. The buttonbands along the center fronts are worked at the same time as the body. These fronts were the most challenging part of the pattern for me to write because of all the things happening at the same time. BUT, I got the headaches so you don't have to! The pattern is all clearly written, step by step, row by row, so it will all turn out just right.

The sleeves are worked flat, with the same ribbing at the cuff as was worked on the back and fronts. There are increases worked for a tapered sleeve shape, and decreases worked at the sleeve cap, for a flattering set-in fit.

The grand finale of this sweater is the hood! After the shoulders are seamed, the hood continues upward with the cable panels from the center fronts heading up the sides of the hood, and over the top, meeting at the top center.

Overall, I'm absolutely thrilled with how this sweater came out, and thoroughly pleased with how much I learned while designing, writing and crocheting it. I only wish I'd made it in my size! I'm just not as small as the models, so I'll have to make another one someday.

It's made using Valley Yarns Amherst, and is sized to fit about 27" to 55" bust circumferences. This pattern is available from WEBS as an individual PDF download, and as a kit. WEBS even has a video tutorial showing how to do crochet cables.