Monday 16 March 2015

You've pulled! - How to crochet a DIY Moschino Cheap and Chic cropped knit mesh pullover

Meshing things up a bit...

 I'm giving it some grunge this week with a crocheted homage to Moschino's cropped knit mesh jumper from their Cheap and Chic line. They had me at that brilliant mustard hue (which I just happened to have in wool form in one of my ever-filling drawers) and an opportunity to crochet. Crocheting is one of the most enjoyable ways to DIY a coveted garment; it's repetitive enough to breeze through by feel whilst delighting at some of the most horrific uses of the television or film medium on the planet without the pedantic mathematical precision of knitting, Crocheting is knitting for self-confessed slackers like myself - an oasis of vegetative calm in which I can turn my brain off yet still make respectable headway on a project. It's the sort of craft where you can simply count stitches instead of having to look down at your work. And so, until the day they (or perchance I) come up with a type of craft you can do through some sort of perverse telekinesis whilst playing computer games, crocheting will retain a place in my minuscule heart.



There have been visual mumblings of netting and crochet as a trend, the most recent of which was at Zadig & Voltaire during Paris Fashion Week, hence why I thought there to be no time like the present for netting yourself your own mesh wardrobe staple.

You will need...

A 4mm crochet hook.

Two balls of sunflower wool. I used Bonus DK wool - colour number: 978


Difficulty



Very easy

Don't be put off by the pattern, it's really not as hard as it looks. You just need to know how to do a triple crochet stitch and a single crochet stitch, but don't worry if you don't, as I'll be hyperlinking some useful video tutorials.


Time

A few days or a few weeks' worth of leisurely evenings when you just want to drift away in front of the television and a crochet hook - naturally!


Hooked on crochet...

Start your front panel by doing 50 single crochet stitches.







Then, do the first triple crochet stitch:



You might notice that in the video, the presenter does the second triple stitch on the next chain link along; just to be difficult, we're not going to do that - you need to put your hook into the third link along and do the triple stitch as normal. After that, you need to do two basic chain stitches and then put your hook pack into the base of the previous triple stitch, and do another triple stitch into there. Got it? Here's an explanation, just in case.



That's how you get the basic sequence going for the main pattern.

Front and back panel pattern

To make the front panel - a process you need to repeat to make the back panel - you need to do a chain of 50 single stitches along the bottom (as stated previously), then start on a row of diagonal triple crochet stitches.

You need to do 23 rows of diagonal crochet stitches in total.

Tip: If you're struggling to read the pattern, click on the image and zoom in.



Once you have made a front and back panel, you need to attach them along the sides (15 rows up , if that makes sense - like you see in on the pattern) and at the shoulders (7 triple stitches in on each side - again, like in the pattern). Finish off the armholes with an extra row of chain stitches along the edges.

To make the sleeves


Repeat the process with diagonal stitches, following this pattern:



Tip: If you're struggling to read the pattern, click on the image and zoom in.

Start by doing a chain of 44 stitches to make the cuffs.

Crochet 25 rows of diagonal triple stitches to make the sleeves. Do 7 more rows of diagonal triple stitches that are narrower by one stitch each side (like in the pattern) so that they form a trapezium shape.

Join the straight sides - but not the sloped ones - by crocheting them together.

Repeat this process to make another sleeve.

When you have made both sleeves, attach them to the armholes along the top.






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