The Oddments Cardigan

Back in October of 2020, I read a blog post at https://zeensandroger.com/2020/10/08/my-crochet-jw-anderson-cardigan/ about how to make an oversized colorful cardigan. The blogger had recreated, using crochet, a knit cardigan that had gone viral over the inter webs. That cardigan, although designed by JW Anderson, was better known as the Harry Styles Cardigan. I was fascinated. It was time to get some color into my life!

​The original version was an oversized knit patchwork cardigan designed in crayon-box colors. But Rosina (also the host of the Zeens and Roger Podcast on Youtube), had decided to create a crocheted cropped version of the JW Anderson cardigan… her way. In her post, she provides a detailed description of her process and gives you tips and advice on how to make your experience a successful one in case you ever decide to make your own version. (Please reference her blogpost for specific design details.)

Of course, I would never venture into such an endeavor on my own, so I invited my bestie, the lovely Clarisabeth, to join me. (Clarisabeth is a blogger, vlogger and crochet designer known as crochetcakes all over the internet.) And so, the Oddments Cardi Crochet Along (CAL) was born.  We started the Instagram CAL on October 31st. The original plan was to work together at creating our own version of this cardigan and record our shared experiences along the way. We recorded only two episodes of our adventure and then, each of us took off in different directions; ultimately finishing our versions following different timelines. You can read Clarisabeth’s recount here.

​The initial idea of this Oddments Cardi CAL was to crochet a colorful, oversized cardigan using Rosina’s recipe and using left over yarn from other projects. Rosina used a color scheme that made me very happy, so I was inspired by her colors and her choice of design elements. I quickly found out that deciding which design elements I wanted to incorporate in my project was much easier than choosing my color scheme.

Yarn Oddments

Once the decision was made to commence this project, I went stash diving and it was immediately obvious that I would work with 9 colors of DK weight yarn, a 4.5 mm hook and make my squares 4 inches by 4 inches. Since I don’t do oversized well, this was the way! I also decided that my version would be longer. 

​Although, I wanted to use DK weight yarn… not all DK is created equal, so I ended up using some yarns classified as Sport or Worsted because, based on their yardage, I figured they would pass as DK. Although I had lots of DK (or DK impostors), the yarn blends were different so I ended up using acrylic, cotton/acrylic, wool/bamboo, wool/acrylic, 100% wool, super wash wool, non-super wash wool… you name it! It was most definitely to be an oddments cardi!

Design elements

​I worked this project following the procedure described Rosina in her post and video. This means that I constructed one large patchwork panel, in continuous rows, changing colors every 18 stitches and completing a color block with 15 rows. Every color block had 9 colors that were organized in a different order and, in addition to half double crochet squares, I also used several “special” stitches such as half double crochet in the back loop only, faux-bobble stitch, lemon peel stitch, and moss stitch. These special stitches were used to make a few squares on each row. I did notice that some stitches distorted the squares quite a bit… but I battled forward.

​As it turned out, planning the color placement for each row in advance was quite unhelpful because, since I was using different stitches, I not only had to make sure that squares of the same color were not close to each other but also that squares with the same special stitch were not side by side. I guess I should have planned the color and the stitch of each square. After the second color block, I just winged it.

​In Rosina’s patchwork cardigan, one of my favorite squares was the animal print square. I decided that I wanted the look of animal print without the yarn management, so I used a variegated yarn that I knew would color pool in crochet to give me an animal print effect. The pattern it created wasn’t exactly animal print, but it worked well enough for me!

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​​When deciding the color to be used for the bottom band, the neck band, the collar, and the cuffs. I found that I had 200 grams in my stash of a particular yarn color so I could make all my bands in the same color. (Sometimes having no options makes life so much simpler.)

​The extra color block row that I added to Rosina’s construction to make it longer gave me just the right amount of additional length. My cardigan was cozy and colorful… the perfect combination!

​A few of my favorite things…

My favorite part of making the cardigan were the sleeves. I found them so satisfying. and I just loved the extra-long cuff. The sleeves in the original JW Anderson cardigan were quite ballooned and super long. I wasn’t convinced that I would enjoy that look. Luckily, since I had used dk yarn instead of chunky like the original and, since I was using a smaller hook than Rosina did, my sleeves came out perfect for me! They were not tight or fitted and only had a slight ballooning effect going on due to the long cuff. I was in sleeve heaven!

​Always room for improvement… 

Hindsight is 20-20. So of course, if I were to make a similar garment in the future there are things I would do differently.

I believe the neck shaping needs rethinking. Making trapezoids at the end of the front panels helped bring the collar away from the neck as was wanted. But I feel the top side of the trapezoid that joins with the back panel needed more stitches so that the weight of the sleeves doesn’t pull the front panel off of the shoulders.

It might be helpful to do some short row shaping at the top of the back panel before joining it to the front an adding the collar band.
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And I might suggest adding pockets! After all, pockets are a girls’ best friend, aren’t they??