Gemma Crochet Cardigan

As you may have gathered, I’m a fairly dedicated knitter, but I do occasionally branch out from the One True Craft to experiment with others. A couple of months ago it was crochet’s turn, after I saw this pattern on Threads and was really drawn to it. (Yes, believe it or not, the algorithm did occasionally cough up a gem or two for me.)

It’s a great shape and fantastic colour, and it fits nicely in my wardrobe, matching with dark and light neutrals equally well. It’s cheery enough to be worn in the sunshine, and bold enough to brighten a colder day. So I’m pretty happy with it, and considering making another in a different shade of the same yarn.

The only slightly odd thing about it is that while it’s merino and thus pretty good at retaining warmth, that’s only true in a wind-free environment. The gaps in the lace let a cold breeze (or over-zealous air con) go straight through, which is not an entirely pleasant sensation. I’ll willingly suffer it for my craft, mind.

Something I really liked about the original design was the puffiness of the sleeves, so I took my time working out the perfect chain-to-pattern-repeat ratio… which I didn’t write down. So those thoughts about making another one of these may be a little trickier. But I think it was pretty successful, giving enough puff to contrast with the wrist, without so much puff that I’m dangling them in my coffee or catching it on door handles.

And now for the facts.

The pattern is Gemma by IamLanka; it’s a slouchy number, worked sideways in three body pieces plus sleeves. While the pattern diagrams did terrify me at first, I picked up the rhythm of the rows fairly quickly… though I made a comical number of errors and had to rip out and repeat huge sections so many times that I probably made the whole thing twice over. And true to form, I did adjust the pattern slightly; the crochet ribbing was making me remember why I abandoned crochet in the first place, by giving me wrist pain and eye strain. I did try to stick with it, but in the end I threw my hands in the air (gently) and did a knit rib instead.

The yarn is Cool Wool by Lana Grossa in a shade which I think has since been discontinued, which is a shame because it’s GLORIOUS. Such orange, very bright 🍊. Also, I ended up cutting it extremely fine with 8 x 50g for size M - right down to rescuing scraps from the bin in case I needed them to sew on my buttons. I was sweating, I tell you, but just about made it.

Speaking of buttons, shout out to these neat buttons I found on Etsy (seller is Buttons & Things Co). They’re coated (enamelled?) metal, surprisingly heavy, and they were a natural choice for the fab orange of my yarn here.