Designing my "Hounds Abound Sweater Jacket"

Hounds Abound Sweater Jacket

Sometimes I come up with these great crochet design ideas but for one reason or the other, getting my brain and fingers to work in tandem can be a challenge. By the time I think I am ready to start working up my idea, I've seen some other beautiful piece of crochet inspiration and my mind wanders elsewhere....

BUT, I am trying really hard to slow down the pace a bit and enjoy the creative crochet journey. I've been making a better effort to complete some wips (works in progress) I have had lingering for a while and some other 2023 crochet and design goals, and so far things are going as expected. It's probably best not to elaborate on that last statement, lol.

I finally finished my Betty Ann Sweater Blanket, design by Daisy Farm Crafts, and enjoyed utilizing the houndstooth stitch. I have used this stitch before, and it is really easy and eye catching. It also happens to be a rather popular stitch in the crochet hemisphere right now.

Here's my finished blanket. It is photographed on my queen bed in the photo below, but should fit a twin bed beautifully. I hope to use it in my new home as a throw, sometime in the near future.

Having recently purchased a box of 15 mini (67 yard) skeins of sample yarns from Hobby Lobby, along with lots of yarn ends on hand, I decided to turn an idea I had in mind into a reality and began gathering materials for making my houndstooth cardigan. I decided I would use these for my contrast colors and that I would use up the remaining Impeccable yarn I had in a cream color as my main color.

The next step would be to determine just exactly how I wanted to construct my sweater and finalize the stitches that would work best for my chosen yarn. Having loved the result of my Betty Ann Sweater Blanket, as well as the soothing rhythm created by working the houndstooth stitch, this is what I chose to work my sweater design in. 

How should I go about constructing my new pattern? There seem to be several houndstooth sweater patterns available already, so I decided to make my design a bit differently, trying to make it one that appears unique from the others. Nowadays it seems as though anything granny stitch or patchwork is very popular. With that in mind, and with the ample amount of varying color choices to work with, I set about making my cardigan in patchwork "panels" to be assembled and made to fit as I worked the design.

I determined that I would make the back portion using three panels, made to measure the width of my back and using the Craft Yarn Council Standard Size Charts, I began my journey into pattern designing my first sweater.

Here are my first three houndstooth "patchwork strips." My plan was to work up one strip/day for as many as I needed, and that turned out just perfectly. 

I seamed them together and went about creating two more strips for the right and left front. I attached those at the shoulder seams and then tried it on for fit.

Next, I made a total of four strips, a bit shorter, to be joined in sets of two for the sleeves. I wanted to make this as a "puff" sleeve, so although the sleeve images appear to be rather long, I fixed that while working my fitted sleeve cuffs.

Front view of sleeves
after attaching to the cardigan.

Back view after attaching sleeves.

Trying it on for fit. 

What it looked like after seaming along the
inner edge of the sleeves and down the sides.

I determined after I attached my sleeves, that I needed to add a bit more to the front side of the cardigan to get better coverage, and went about creating two inner front panels that were seamed to the left and right outer front panels. This did the trick and gave me the added coverage I was looking for.

After adding the inner front panels.

Double checking the sweater length.

The length of my cardigan was just where I wanted it, and having added front panels, I was now ready to add my ribbing, This would be worked as SC in the back loop and slip stitched to the edge of the sweater. First I worked the bottom ribbing, then the neckline and finally my ribbed sleeve cuffs. 

This photo shows where I marked along
the neckline ribbing for my buttons
and the button hole placement.

Back view of my finished
Hounds Abound Sweater design.

Side view.

Taking my little Murphy out for a walk...

If you are interested in making your own scrap-busting "Hounds Abound Sweater Jacket," you can find very detailed pattern directions for adult sizes small, medium and large in my Ravelry Store. Simply visit me there by clicking on the link below.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hounds-abound-sweater-jacket

Feather Stitch Hexagon Cardigan

Hexagon cardigans seem to be flooding the internet and are extremely popular right now. And, why not?They are pretty easy to make using two hexagons made to the same size, folded to create the arms and body and with a few added touches, you have a beautiful sweater!

After designing a feather stitch square motif for my "Soft As A Feather Baby Blanket" along with the 2nd version of the blanket that I fondly call "Bahama Dayze," I decided to get my creative self busy and work up the pattern directions for a feather stitch hexagon. So, this simple little hexagon was born.

The photo above shows my hexagon completed through 5 rounds. It doesn't look like much in the photo, but make it with the color fading Caron Colorama Halo yarn in the pretty Bluestone Frost colorway and you have a lovely, soft sweater that others will want to make.

So, this blog is not a step by step tutorial on how to make a hexagon cardigan to an exact size, but more of a general guide about how I completed mine. There is a fabulous tutorial on how to make a granny stitch hexagon cardigan that you can see by clicking on the link below. I viewed it in order to get a general idea about the construction of a hexagon cardigan, but used my own pattern design and methods for completing it.

GRANNY STITCH HEXAGON CARDIGAN

To start, I gathered some yarn that I had purchased on sale from Joann Fabric and Crafts a while back. I had 4 donuts of the Caron Colorama Halo O'go yarn and thought how pretty and soft this would look as a hexagon cardigan. Using a 6.5 mm hook, I made two identical Feather Stitch Hexagons. (You can find the pattern tutorial on Ravelry by clicking this link:) FEATHER STITCH HEXAGON MOTIF

I worked my hexagon for 20 rounds. Each round that you complete after round 5 makes the hexagon a bit floppier. I love how the yarn colors fade from the light frosty blue to a more darker shade, so I decided to work from the lighter end of the donut. I used one donut for each hexagon so I could get a nearly exact match.

I lay my hexagon motifs out on a flat surface and adjusted them both so that the tail end from round 20 was centered on both the left and right bottom of the sweater. Photo below shows both hexagons from the right side out.

Next, I needed to seam my shoulders together. I turned my hexagon wrong side out so that my seam would appear on the inside once completed. I attached my yarn in the right hand corner and worked SC stitches through the outer loops along each top side edge. I didn't work these stitches too tight as I wanted it to lay against my shoulder nicely without pulling.

Here is what my seam looked like once completed from the inside.

                            Once turned right side out, this is what my shoulder seam looked like.

After turning my work right side out, I determined that I would need an additional 4" for the back center and went about adding 4 rows (2" total for each) of feather stitch along the back side edge on both the left and right panel. As I completed the second set of 4 rows, I joined both panels together working a slip stitch; after completing one feather stitch of one panel I slip stitched into the top of the feather stitches from the second panel to join it together.

I added 2" to each side of the back panel.

                                                                

Preparing to join the back panels.

Joining panels together with slip stitch.

    

Now that my panels were connected, I decided to try it on for fit. It fits well overall, but I want to add a bit of length to this before adding my bottom ribbing. As you can see in the photo below, if I wanted a cropped cardi, this would be fine, but I would prefer mine to go just below my natural waist.

=

This is just a bit short.
I will add three rows to the bottom.

I attached my yarn at the lower left front corner and worked three rows back and forth along the bottom. This gave me an additional 1.5" in length to work with before adding my ribbing. Once finished with those three rows, I turned my sweater to work along the neckline and worked a sc stitch along the entire neckline and down and around the bottom edge. When finished with this "round" of sc it landed me exactly where I needed to be in order to begin the bottom sc ribbing.

I attached my yarn at the X on the left front
and worked my way around to the right side X.
Without fastening off, I will continue to work up
 around the neckline and back down around the bottom
using SC in order to prepare for the ribbing.

I used my 5.5 mm hook and attached my yarn in the lower right front corner and chained 11. I sc in the second ch from my hook and down toward the sweater edge. I worked two slip sts along the edge, ch 1 and turned my work. I continued to work sc in the back loop, but when I reached the last st farthest away from the bottom edge of the sweater, I made a regular sc. This gives that outside stitch just a bit more structure. On the way back, I worked one regular sc, then 9 sc in the back loop only, slip stitch to attach, ch 1 and turn and repeated all the way around the sweater bottom until I reached the end. Once I worked the entire bottom ribbing, I tried it on to make sure I liked the look and fit, then went on to work my first sleeve.

Beginning the bottom border.

Working my way around.

Trying it on for fit and checking length.

Now that the bottom ribbing was complete, I began extending my sleeves. I located the bottom "center" of the hexagon and ran my finger along the "center line" to the sleeve edge. Using my 6.5 mm hook, I attached my yarn to the "underside" of the sleeve. I worked feather stitches around the previous row and added 2 extra FS/CH1 at the top of the shoulder seam. All in all I had 22 feather stitches worked around the sleeve. I worked in turned rounds and completed a total of 19 rounds,. On the 20th round I worked one regular sc, followed by sc2tog for 22 more sts. I worked a regular sc in the last st and had a total of 24 stitches. I added one additional round of sc before adding my ribbed cuff, but changed to my 5.5 mm hook and worked the one sc in each st for a total of 24. At the end of this round, I joined and continued with the 5.5 mm hook and worked a ribbed cuff of sc in the back loop. As I did for the bottom ribbing, I joined my cuff ribbing to the sleeve with 2 sl sts, ch 1 and turn, placing a regular sc in the outer most st for added structure. Once all the way around, I slip stitched my cuff together and fastened off.

Left sleeve and cuff completed.

I repeated this process for my right sleeve and cuff, making sure to work the same number of rounds and changing the hook from my 6.5 mm to 5.5 mm as I did on the first sleeve. I really like how the sleeve length works on this for me, and even have a little bit of a puff by working the "fitted" sc ribbing for the cuff.

Once I was happy with the bottom ribbing, sleeves and cuff, I only had the neckline ribbing to complete. I used my 5.5 mm hook and attached my yarn in the lower right corner of the sweater. Working along the neckline as I did for the bottom ribbing, I chained 11, worked back toward the neckline using sc stitches, joined to the neckline edge using two slip stitches and worked sc in the back loop only (with the exception of the outer most sc which was worked regular) all the way around the neckline edge until I reached the opposite corner. I fastened off and wove my ends in.

Overall, I am really happy with how my hexagon sweater turned out. I did notice that there seemed to be a bit of "pulling" along the ribbed border of my neckline. I think there are two possible things I could do to eliminate that from happening when I make this next time: 

1) I could make the neckline ribbing with my 6.5 mm hook instead of the 5.5 mm hook, or

2) I could alternate between working 2 slip stitches to1 slip stitch every other row in order to get more rows of sc along the edge and prevent the pulling. 

The good news is that I am already in the process of making my next hexagon cardigan, and when I get to the neckline ribbing I will definitely try out both techniques to see which one works the best!

I hope you enjoyed my guide and that I have given you a bit of encouragement to try your own feather stitch hexagon cardigan! If you do make one, I would love to see your finished work. You can find me on Facebook at Purdy Sweet Crochet or Instagram at Purdy Sweet Crochet.

Happy Crocheting!!

~Merri