Have you ever bought a fabulously variegated hand-dyed yarn and later have no idea on how to make use of them? Well, the best way to bring out the best of such yarn is to crochet a project with the basic of the stitches.

Chromata cardigan is a crochet cocoon cardigan that is designed using only chain and double crochet stitches with a twist.

Name

Chroma means colours. The name Chromata indicates a variesty of colours in the yarn used to crochet this cocoon cardigan.

Yarn 

The yarn used in this cardigan is a highly variegated hand-dyed yarn that I purchased from my local yarn vendor. The yarn is so beautiful that I was waiting for a perfect design to bring out the best of the colours in it. 

It was only later I realized beauty lies in simplicity

Construction of crochet cocoon cardigan

Chromata cardigan is made from a rectangle piece, folded and joined leaving out the arm hole. It is then finished by crocheting the edging.

The twist here is, the rectangle is neither made along the length nor width, but crocheted from one corner to another. A series of open-work rows is followed by a row of solid stitches while making this C2C rectangle.

Instructions are included to customize the cardigan to your own size. I fall around a standard medium size or size 3. I made my cardigan oversized but it could easily fit up-to size extra-large. But you can easily fit to your measurements. I would advice you to give at least 2” positive ease in your measurements to accommodate fold-overs.

For guides on standard measurement, visit HERE

Pre-requisites

Materials

• Yarn: DK weight cotton or bamboo yarn 1050 m
• Crochet hook: 5 mm and 5.5 mm
• Stitch markers – 4
• Yarn Needle

Abbreviation

• ch – chain
• dc – double crochet
• beg.dc2tog – ch2, sk1, dc in next st
• dc2tog – double crochet 2 placed together, skipping one stitch in between the legs.
• dc3tog – double crochet 3 placed together (each leg in one stitch)
• beg.dc3tog – beginning double crochet 3 placed together (ch2, dc2tog with no skipping stitches in between)
• slst – slip stitch
• sk – skip
• st – stitch    

Gauge

Using 5.5 mm hook, 13sts in 7 rows of dc is 4’’.

Notes

Ch3 in the beginning of the row is considered as one double crochet.

Ch4 in the beginning of the round is considered as one double crochet and ch1.

Turn after every round, unless specified.

The side in which you make the solid double crochet row is the right side.

Pattern Instructions

Start using 5.5mm crochet hook.

Part 1

Increasing on both sides to get the length and width of the rectangle.

R1:ch4, 4dc in the 1^st ch

R2: ch4, dc in the same st, (ch1, sk1, dc) till the end, ch1, dc in the last st.

R3-R6: Repeat R2

R7: ch3, 2dc in the same st, dc in each stitch across until the last st, 3dc in the last st.

Repeat R2 to R7, 5 more times or until the desired height of the cardigan.

Part 2

Increasing on one side to get desired length of the rectangle and decreasing on other to maintain the width of the rectangle (height of the cardigan)

R1: beg.dc2tog, (ch1, sk1, dc) till the end, ch1, dc in the last st,

R2: ch4, dc in the same st, (ch1, sk1, dc) until last 3 sts, sk1, dc2tog on last 2sts skipping the ch in between.

R3-R4: Repeat R1-R2

R5: Repeat R1

R6: ch3, 2dc in the same st, dc in each st across until the last 3st, dc3tog in the last sts.

Repeat R1-R6 one more time or until the desired length of the triangle.

Part 3

Decreasing on both sides to form a full rectangle.

R1: beg.dc2tog, (ch1, sk1, dc) till the end leaving the last  2dc, dc2tog on last 2dc.

R2-R5: Repeat R1

R6: beg dc3tog, dc until the last 3 sts, dc3tog in last three sts.

Repeat R1-R6, 5 more times or the number of times you repeated in part 1

Next rows: Repeat R1-R5

Last row: ch2, dc4tog.

Fasten off. Bock the piece well before proceeding to join.

My rectangle measures 40’’ by 30’’

Joining

With right side facing up, lay the rectangle piece flat. (Refer pic)

Fold the piece along the width of the rectangle. Now, the wrong side is facing you

From the folded end, measure about 7.5’’ (or any comfortable measure) for the sleeve opening and place stitch marker to secure both pieces.

Secure the end with stitch marker as well. (Refer pic)

Repeat on the other side.

Attach yarn to the join in one of the stitch markers and slip stitch to join until the end. Repeat this on the other side too.

Once done, turn your piece to the right side facing out and proceed to the edging.

Sleeve edging

With the right side facing, join yarn anywhere in one of the sleeve opening.

Ch2 (does not count as st), dc uniformly along the edge (take note of the stitch count). Join to first dc. Fasten off.

Repeat on the other sleeve. Make sure the stitch count is the same on both sleeves.

Front edging

Attach yarn anywhere in the front opening of the cardigan.

Ch2 (does not count as st), dc uniformly along the edge. Join to first dc. Fasten off.

Weave in all the ends.

And now go ahead and dress-up with some basics and flaunt your Chromata cardigan.

If you like crochet cocoon cardigans like I do, check out my other design, Elegance in Elements cardigan

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