A Crocheted Baby Girl Cardigan Sweater

Hello. This one is for the crocheters or crochet admirers out there! It’s a pattern for a Cardigan Sweater for a Baby Girl.

I’ll begin by saying, that although I have included the pattern here, I didn’t invent it. It was originally posted on the internet 20 years ago, by an impressive early adapter to online publishing named Abigail.

She said goodbye to her audience and closed her site down in 2009, writing “May 2009 Update! Hello world! :) I obviously have less and less time for crafts as I ‘grow up’ but this entire ‘Crotiques’ escapade has showed me what happens when crafts and the tech world merge–! I love it. A little update on me, I graduated with my MBA in December 2008 and currently work for an HR firm.”

Since then, the original pattern was cached (filed away on the internet) in 2009, by an outside party, with a heading stating “This Page is an outdated, mirrored website brought to you by an archive“, alongside some shady looking advertisements.

I like the pattern and think the little sweater is really cute, so I copied it over to my hard-drive years ago, as, being somewhat paranoid about the safety of my computer, I was nervous about visiting an outdated site like that. Also, I was afraid that the pattern could very easily disappear completely.

That is all to say that Abigail wrote a good pattern back in 1998, which I wish to preserve so crocheters can continue to make this little cardigan. Therefore, I am republishing it.

In this post, you see the cardigan made by following the original pattern exactly as it was written by Abigail. Since I’ve made it three times now, needing to rip-back sections and restart each time because some parts are confusing, I am familiar with the potential problems that may arise when following the pattern as originally written. It was written with experienced crocheters in mind, with very brief instructions and without any images to make things more clear. So, I’ve added more details to the original pattern, a chart of the yoke part, and a series of images.

However, the original version can still be accessed via this Ravelry page, if you’d prefer to use that.

Without further ado, here is Abigail’s pattern for a “Picot and Lace Sweater”, made more clear by me. My contributions are the parts in brackets, and all the images.

Picot and Lace Sweater – pattern by Abigail, clarification (in brackets) by me :

Materials:

Sport weight yarn (The definition of what is termed Sport weight yarn must have changed since this was originally written, as I first made it using what we know to be sport weight, and ended up with a very tiny little sweater that was adorable but way too small — that time, I loved the fine yarn I had selected so went on using it, modifying the pattern to make it large enough to fit. That project was described in this post. So, choose something that suits the largish hook size. I used about 120g of a medium weight 100% 4-ply cotton.)

“J” hook (6mm)

Size: 20″ chest : 3-9 months (I don’t know if babies have gotten bigger, but the little girl I made this for, who is considered average sized, fit into it at 2 1/2 months old, with a bit of room to grow.) * Please see the Follow-Up note at the very end of this post, for more information about fit.

Gauge on yoke: 1 inc and 2 hdc = 1″ measured at the base of the stitches.

*BEG chain does NOT count as first st!
(1st stitches of following rows made into the base of the chain, resulting in no gaps)

Ch 32 (very loose stitches. I inserted a second hook, as pictured, to make sure the chain was loose enough. Length = about 10 inches)

↑ Use a hook several sizes up for your beginning chain, so it remains nice and loose. I didn’t have a large hook, so stuck a second one in there. ↑

Yoke:

↑ Here’s a chart I created, dealing with the yoke part (rows 1 through 7). Click it for more detail.↑

↑ Close-up of the front part. My instinct was to have symmetry on each side of the opening, which is what tripped me up every time, as, there are some rows that are not symmetrical. Click for more detail. ↑

1. Sc in second ch from hook and in each ch across. (31 single crochet stitches). Ch 2, turn

2. Hdc in first 2 sts, 2hdc in next st — inc made. *hdc in next 2 sts. Inc in next. Rep * across to last st. hdc in last st. Ch 2, turn. (41 half-double stitches, plus beginning chain-2)

3. Hdc in next 2 sts. Inc, *hdc in next 3 sts, inc. Rep * across. hdc in last 2 sts. Ch 2, turn. (51 half-double stitches, plus beginning chain-2)

4-7. Continue working hdc in each st across with inc in 2nd hdc of inc in row below. Ch 2, turn. (4th row = 61 hdc + beg. ch2. 5th row = 71 hdc + beg. ch2. 6th row = 81 hdc + beg. ch2. 7th row = 91 hdc + beg. ch2)

(about 8 1/2 inches across yoke. Width of strip = 3 inches)

8. (row which creates armhole) Hdc in 1st 5 sts. Inc. Hdc in next 8 sts. Inc. ch 5 for armhole. Sk 16 sts, hdc in next st, inc in next. hdc in next 8 sts. *Inc. hdc in next 8 sts. Rep * once more. Inc. Ch 5, sk 16 sts. Hdc in next st. Inc. Hdc in next 8 sts. Inc. Hdc in last 4 sts. Ch 3, turn. Do not fasten off.

Body: Beg chain counts as a stitch on these rows.

Stitches: V-st [(Dc, ch 1, Dc) in space indicated] Cluster [3dc in same sp]

9. Dc in 1st st. Sk 2 sts. *V-st in next, sk 2 sts. Rep * across to last 2 sts. Dc in last st. Ch 3, turn (24 V-stitches + 2 double crochet stitches at either end)

10. Dc in 1st st. Cluster in each ch1-sp of v-sts. Dc in beg st. Ch 3, turn

Rep 9 & 10 for body pattern to a total of 16 rows from beginning. Do not fasten off. (11th row – Double-crochet in 1st stitch. V in Centre Double-Crochet of previous cluster, DC in last. Continue pattern, alternating one row of “Clusters” and one row of “Vee-Stitches”, until you’ll completed 8 rows of lace part. Height from neck will be about 8 inches.)

Edging:

Stitches: Picot[ch 3, sl st into last st made]

(I switched to a smaller hook H 5mm for the edging, to make it more neat.)

(Ch 1)

Sl st up front in ends of rows, adding 3 evenly spaced button holes –ch 1 or ch 2 instead of sts — between rows 1-8. (I used only 1 button, inserting the button-hole right where the yoke meets the lacy part.)

Sc around neck, adding picots if desired, for a lacier look. (For tighter picots, sl into base of ch-3). Sc down other front. Sc across bottom placing picots every 3rd st. Fasten off.

↑ Note, you could stop there and have a cute little vest. ↑

Sleeves:

Attach yarn to underarm. Place between 20-23 sts around. (I did 22) Join. Ch 2, without turning, continue to work rnds of hdc until length of sleeve is desired, about 10 rows. (I did 10 rows = 4 inches, but in hindsight would add a couple more inches to the sleeves.)

11. Hdc-dec in every 3rd st. (I didn’t decrease end of sleeve.)

12. Sl st around loosely, placing a picot every 3 sts. (I added picots to ends of the sleeves, 7 of them made with the smaller hook.)

↑ Note : when I make this again, I’ll add a couple of inches to the sleeves. ↑

Fasten off.

Rep for other sleeve.

(Weave in ends and sew on button(s). I used two separate pieces of double thread to sew the button on, to make sure baby can’t pull it off.)

And now you want to see the garment on a baby, right?! Here is a darling new family member modeling the cardigan when she was 2 1/2 months old.

* Follow-up : Here’s another photo of this little darling wearing the sweater, this time when she was 5 months. Her mom says it still fits fine, but with 3/4 length sleeves. So, if you make this and add a couple of inches to the sleeves, I’d say it would fit a baby from about 2 months to 6 or 7 months.

If you have any questions about this pattern, please either email me directly or leave a comment and I’ll try to help.

Thank you to Abigail, the long-ago crocheter, for this pattern! It is appreciated and saved for posterity.

xo loulou

These stories were linked to.

Crocheted Baby Cardigan and Matching Flower Brooch for Mom