My Scrap Yarn Cardigan

This Scrap Yarn Cardigan is a crochet version of the JW Anderson Cardigan, designed by Rosina of @zeensandroger

The Design

I don’t think this project requires an introduction. But, just in case, This is a crochet version of The JW Anderson design that Harry Styles wore and took the crafting community by storm.

In all honesty, this was a trend that I had no intention of participating in. My brain just couldn’t get past the primary school colors. But @mindandmusecrafts wanted to end 2020 with bright and cheerful colors. She convinced me to host the #oddmentscardical . If you are interested in reading about the CAL – here . Essentially, the idea of this CAL is to crochet something using Rosina’s recipe.

Incidentally Rosina’s version of this scrap yarn cardigan is why I decided to follow through! The colors just go so well together and the animal print square is to die for. Also, the size of my scrap stash was getting a little overwhelming and blankets are not high on my list.

While I thought the size of my yarn stash was overwhelming, turns out that to make this cardigan, I had to dig very deep.

Construction of scrap yarn cardigan

As Rosina pointed out, the most challenging part of crocheting this scrap yarn cardigan was the color choices. I cannot tell you how I agonized over the colors. Seriously, after the second row I stopped planning my colors and just went with the flow. Evidence, my construction chart below.

While I did follow Rosina’s over all construction design, I did offer my own interpretation. Shocker I know.

Unlike Rosina, I used Dk weight yarn and a 4mm hook. Because I used a different yarn and hook size, my squares measure approximately 4mm. In theory, this would make my garment less oversized.

However, it also made the cardigan more cropped than I liked. Easily fixed by adding an extra block row before splitting for the sleeves. Speaking of sleeves, I thought I would need to make them longer than the 4 block rows pictures above, but they turned out just fine.

The only thing is that I thought they were too long and bell like for cuffs. So I just crocheted two rounds of decreases using hdc and finished with a round of sc.

In addition to changing the sleeve cuff, I also made an adjustment to the sleeve join. I didn’t want the join to be as visible as it is for the shoulders so I did two rounds of hdc in black and joined the sleeve in black. I actually really like this feature.

Yarn

As this is a scrap yarn projects, I really didn’t give a second thought to combining yarns. In the front panel picture above, I have combined, cotton/acrylic, acrylic, and wool yarns. I quite like all the different textures that these yarns give the cardigan.

I also combined yarn weights. I tried to make them blend better by using the thicker yarns with the textured stitches. That way everything was more or less level.

The neckband, waistband and cuffs were all crocheted with Lionbrand Jeans yarn.

Final Thoughts on my scrap yarn cardigan

Even though, I agonized over the color choices and placement, I really did enjoy working through my yarn scraps to make this cardigan. I’ve actually used it a lot more than I thought I would.

Having said this, there is one thing I would change, the neckband. Hindsight tells me that I should have done a bit of short row shaping and decreases to have the neckline fit better. As it stands, it falls off my shoulders when buttoned.

I will attempt some crochet surgery in the future for this.

Baring crochet surgery, I’m quite happy with how I have put together this cardigan. I still do have yarn scrapt to use up though, perhaps a fingering weight version of this?

Do you have any scrap yarn projects on the go?