Crochet a Mesh Cotton Cardigan: Lightweight Wardrobe Essential

1. Introduction: I'm so excited because today, I'm going to be showing you how to crochet this mesh cotton cardigan perfect for the warmer weather. This is made of a two row repeat of double crochet and a mesh stitch, which is pretty much double crochet and then chaining one to create the spaces in the mesh stitch. I have a trip to Spain coming up and I cannot wait to wear it. The cotton feel and breathable gauge make it so easy to wear over summer dresses or denim. This tutorial is broken down into five easy to follow sections, the back panel, the two front panels, the arms and cuffs, the button band, and finally, the collar. If you prefer to follow along with a pattern, it is available on my website, which is cakemble.com or on my Etsy shop as well. I will link both of them below. For this cardigan, you'll need 12 balls of yarn and colors epic, 100% cotton yarn in Ekrow a five and a six millimeter crochet hook, a tapestry needle, a pair of scissors, five small black buttons. Some black thread and a needle to go with it. So stitch markers. And if you wish, you can use a tape measure. And, of course, a nice cup of coffee. But for now, it's time to start crocheting. Let's get into it. 2. Back Panel: We're starting with the back panel, and this is the very bottom of the back panel that will form the waistband. Start by chaining six. One, two, three, four, five, six. Now, for the first five stitches, we are going to just single crochet five. So go back into where you've been. One, two, three, and five. So you've done your chain six, and then you have done a one row of just single crochet of five. Chain one, turn, and then you're going to start in this stitch here. We're going to just single crochet in the front loop only. That's one, two, three, four. And then the fifth one is a little bit harder to spot, but it's right here. That's five. We're going to do exactly this. So chain one, turn, and then go into those first five loops, front loop only with your single crochet. And we're going to do this for 59 rows. So I will meet you back here when you have your 59 rows. Fabulous. Now we have 59 rows, and we're going to start working into the top of the waistband here. So I'm going to chain four. Then work a double crochet into the third stitch along. So this is one, two, and three. So I'm going to grab the yarn, pop it into that stitch along, and make my first double crochet. So this chain counts as a stitch and then we're essentially skipping this next stitch and working into the next one. Then I'm going to chain one and skip a stitch. Now double crochet into this next one. Continue this all the way along the row. I'll meet you back here at the end of the row and we can start row two. Okay, we're at the end of row one, and I've just worked my last double crochet. Now I'm going to chain three and turn. This row is double crochet all the way along, so no gaps. Just double crochet into every stitch across the row. I'll see you at the end of Row two. Amazing. So Row two complete. Row three is exactly the same as row one. So we're going to chain four turn and then we're going to skip this stitch here and go straight into this one with our double crochet. I'm going to repeat rows one and two all the way up until I have 30 rows, and that will be your back panel done. I'll meet you back here when you've done your 30 rows, and we can move on to the front panels. Well, I knew, that's the biggest part done. Now all we've got to do is go onto the two front panels. 3. Front Panels: The front panels are starting off the same as your back panel. So for the waistband part, we're going to do exactly the same. Chaining six. One, two, three, five, six, and then doing five into these single crochet. And then we're going to do 29 rows of a single crochet in the front loop. So I'll meet you back here when you have 29 rows. Excellent. So 29 rows done, and we're now going to chain four. Skip a stitch, go into this next stitch just like we did before with a double crochet. Chain one and then do the same all the way along. And in the second row, you're going to carry on with your two row repeat, which is just double crochet all the way along. So exactly as you did for the back panel, and you will need to do this part twice because there's two front panels. So you're going to do exactly the same twice. And once you reach row 28, you can start your neck line. Fabulous. So we have our 28 rows, and now I'm going to go on to row 29, and it's going to be exactly the same as we were doing before with the mesh. So it's going to be a chain of four, one, two, three, four, and turn. And we are doing exactly the same as we did, but it's going to be a little bit shorter. So we're going to put double crochet, skip a stitch, double crochet into the next. And we're going to do this for 13 stitches in. Instead of the 29, we're going to do 13 stitches. We have our 13 stitches across now, so we've got the first bar being the first stitch. And then we've got one, two, three, four, five, six more bars. So that's 13 stitches across in total, because you've got these stitches here as well. Now you're just going to chain three and go back on yourself like you did all the other rows. And that would be row 30 finished off. So double crocheting, like you have been doing all the way across here. And then we can cast off and weave in our ends and make sure you do two of these front panels. 4. Sewing panels at the shoulder: Perhaps, I have my back panel here, and I'm going to lay my two front panels on top of this to line them up. I've left quite a tail here, so I can use this to sew across this shoulder. And that is what I'm going to be doing next. I'm just lining up the very edges of this using my tapestry needle and the mattress stitch to go through each stitch across the shoulders. I'm going to do that both sides. 5. Making the arms: The arms are going to be worked using the same stitch pattern, but in the round. I'm going to start the arms by joining ten rows down. So two, four, six, eight, ten, and then I'm going to join a new piece of yarn chain three. And this is going to be a double crochet round. So I'm gonna double crochet in all of these stitches up to the shoulder and then down again. Now I'm up to the top of the shoulder. I'm just going to carry on with these, but down the back. And I'm going to do exactly the same as I did on the front. I'm going to do ten rows down. And then we can join them together. Now, I'm ten rows down on this side, and now I can join this row together. So I'm going to just slip stitch into this side. The top stitch. Just like that. And then I'm going to chain four. One, two, three. Or skip a stitch and then go into the next stitch. And we're going to make our mesh round. You know exactly what you're doing here. You've done it before. Wonderful. So you have now done your mesh round, and you are going to slip into the third chain. Let's just call it this one. All right. Round three, we're going to start our decrease. So I'm going to do a decrease in the first stitch. So yarn over, pull up a loop. And then go into the next stitch. Pull up a loop. And then I have four loops on my hook. And then I'm going to pull through three and then pull through the last two. And I'm going to do that again, so double crochet. Pull up a loop, but then go into the next one. Pull up another loop, four loops on my hook, full through three, and then pull through that last two. So I've decreased four stitches into two stitches. And now I'm just going to merrily go around doing double crochet all the way around again. This is round three. And I'm going to do this every odd round with the decrease. So round five, round seven, nine, all those odd ones. They're all going to have a decrease, and that's what will tap in my arm to the wrist. The mesh rounds are all the even numbers, and they are going to be staying exactly the same. There's no decreases in those, so you're only decreasing in every odd round. And I'm gonna do 25 rounds in total. So I'm going to end on a double crochet round. So I'll meet you here when you've done 25 rounds or as long as you would like your arm to be. 6. The cuffs: Fabulous. Now we have a whole sleeve, well done U. And we have 25 rows in this sleeve. And the last row should be one of your double crochet rows. Now, for the cuffs, I'm going to show you a tintian crochet technique. So what you'll need to do is chain four. One, two, three, four. And then we're going to go into this first stitch, pull up a loop, into the next stitch and pull up a loop into the next stitch and pull up a loop. And then into this next stitch in the round and pull up a loop. So you've got five loops on your hook. And all you're going to do is yarn over and pull through the first two. You have four loops on your hook. Yarn over and pull through the next two. You have three loops on your hook. Yarn over and pull through the next two. You have two loops on your hook, and then yarn over and pull through the final two. And that is actually Tunisian crochet. But you don't need the long hook because you've only got a short amount of stitches. So again, we're going to go into this post here, pull up a loop. In the next post, pull up a loop into the next post, pull up a loop and into the next stitch in your round. And then you're going to pull through two, pull through two, pull through two, and then pull through two. Now, because you want your cuffs to be a little bit tapered, a little bit kind of cinched in, I'm going to do a decrease in this third stitch. So I'm going to do exactly the same thing. You're going to want to go through here, pull up a loop three times. Then you're going to go into this one, and then into the next. So you actually have five now. Oh yeah, no. You actually have six now, loops on your hook. And you're going to pull through the first three, and then you're going to do the pulling through two, pulling through two and pulling through two. So now you've put your stitch count down, and this is the last stitch that you've gone into. So we're going to now move on to this one. So we're going to do two more of the normal unit crochet, one, two, three, and then going in there. It's five loops. Two, all through two, all through two, and pull through two. We're going to do that again. One, two, three, and then four. Five loops on your hook, pull through two, all through two, pull through two, and then pull through two. Okay, so you're making this sort of effect. And the next time we will do another decrease stitch. So we're going to go in, pull up a loop in and pull up a loop. In a pull up a loop, and then we're going to go into each of the next two stitches and pull up a loop. So instead of five on your hook, you have six loops on your hook. Now we're going to pull through the three at the bottom, and then pull through two, pull through two, pull through two. All right. So back to the normal stitches. We're going one, two, three, or and then you were just pulling through two on the way back. One, two, three, four. All through two, pull through, two, pull through, two, pull through, two. All right. And then we're going to do a decrease stitch. So as we did before, instead of just going into one of these stitches at the bottom, you're going to go into two. So you have six loops on your hook, pull through the first three, pull through two, pull through two, and then pull through two. Alright, so you want to do this all the way around. You don't have to do the decrease stitches. So if you find that you don't want it to be cinched in at all or you just find them too much, you don't have to decrease. You can just do this simple stitch all the way around without decreasing. 7. Sewing up the sides: [No Speech] 8. Button band and collar: Mm. We're on the home straight, guys. Right. We're gonna do the button band now, so I'm gonna join with a little bit of a larger hook because we're gonna be doing slip stitches. We're gonna join right at the bottom on what will be their left side. And then I'm going to slip stitch in every stitch up until you get to the top. Just like this. So I've sip stitched all the way up to the top, and it should now look like this. You've got the stitches on the other side looking quite nice. And now we're going to chain one turn. I'm just going to turn my whole wax so you can see. And then go back along this row in this front-loop-only. And slip stitch again. And you're going to do this until the button band is a little bit wider than your buttons. So up down, up, down with slip stitches, chaining at each end before you start your next row. And if it looks a bit funny now, don't worry. I will kind of straighten out. For the button band, I slip stitched up and down until I had five rows, then cast off. On the other side, I did the same until I got to row three and then made my buttonholes by chaining one and skipping a stitch. I used five small black buttons and spaced them 17 stitches apart. When I got to the top, I used the same technique as the cuffs to make the collar. Onto the collar, I have a chain of four, and we're going to work Tunisian crochet, like we did with the cuffs. That's going in one, two, three, and four So you've got five loops on your hook, so you're going to do this. The next one, we're going to add our buttonhole. It's sitting at the top here. So you're going to need to leave a space. So I'm going to go in with my Tunisian crochet. One, two, three. And instead of going, I would normally just go four into here. Not going to do that. Okay, so I've only got four loops on my hook, and I'm going to pull through two. Pull through next two, and pull through the next two. That will leave that little space for the button. And now I'm going to go into this next ditch here and you'll see the buttonhole. And I've done that, so we're going to go one, two, three, Skip this stitch here and go into whatever you can find to go into in the next one cause it doesn't look like a stitch at all. So now we have five on our hook again. Pull through, pull through. All through. And pull through. And now we have that. Let's just do a check. I fit nice and snugly, but not too snug, not too loose. There we go. Perfect. So now when I sew the button on the other side, and you're wearing it, you can do the button up. Ovs. This next part is going to be a decrease stitch. So got to start decreasing now. One. Tu. Three. I'm going to go into the next stitch, usual, and then you're going to go into the next stitch, as well. So instead of having five loops on your hook, you have six loops on your hook. We want to bind these two stitches together to do the decrease. So I'm just going to yarn over and pull through. Instead of two, I'm going to pull through all three at the bottom. Then you've got four on your hook, so you can just pull through the two, two, and two. Oh, that looks really pretty. I like that. No