Crochet Cloud Sweater

I’ve always liked the idea of a cloud sweater for some reason. I’ve seen them around and always thought it’s a really cool design, so now with my crochet capabilities, I was able to make one.

I had *some* blue and white yarn (unassigned to a specific project), but only 100g of blue, rather than the 200g or so I really needed. But I did have some turquoise, which I thought could be a good mix, providing I did a sort of ombre design. I did want to test this first, because I had no idea if it would look any good. Here’s the design on paper:

But first I needed to design a ‘test cloud’:

…as I didn’t know how it would translate into crochet from the paper, especially with the fact that I was going for a ribbed look. This grid paper was pretty accurate in representing each stitch, so I sketched out a rough cloud shape and created the above test. And it actually looked pretty cloud like, or at least in my opinion. So with that, I was able to carry out the aforementioned ombre test:

I wonder if anyone else’s crochet designs go through such a scientific process or if it’s just me- fellow crochet designers please let me know!!

Side note: I learned that the odd row numbers needed to be the front of the design, while equal were the back, so all the cut yarn strands etc need to be on the even number rows. You can see the ombre one is the opposite way round to the pink/ blue one, as I didn’t realise this at first.

As I sort of predicted, the ombre unfortunately wasn’t the look I wanted. It lacked contrast and didn’t match the bold image I had in my head for this design. Which meant I had to purchase another 100g ball, which was a problem in itself, because I bought the original ball a year ago and yeah finding the same dye lot one year on wouldn’t be easy! So I was stood in Hobbycraft trying to find the closest match for about half an hour. Bet I looked really normal and not weird at all. To be honest, I can’t really tell on the finished garment that it was two different dye lots and I should be the one to notice it, so I guess I picked right! I also had to buy yet another ball, because I didn’t have quite enough yarn to do the ribbing, so I now have almost a full ball of blue to use up in another project. Great! Maybe I could do an inverted version, so it could be a white backing, with blue clouds. Might be an idea…

Anyway, knowing the scale using the grid paper, I was then able to draw out a further four clouds (five was the right amount for this). I went with a variety of shapes and sizes, as I didn’t want them too uniform or anything:

I then created a grid in Excel- the same size of the grid paper I was using, which I printed out with enough rows/ columns as I needed for the vest- I was using the same row/ stitch count as one of the previous vests I made. I then marked out the front and back in different colour felts on the grid and transferred the clouds onto tracing paper. I cut those out, so I was able to move around and position them how I wanted and then taped them down once I was happy with the layout. When it came to doing the back, I would peel off the tape and reposition the clouds, so the back would be different than the front- I didn’t want them identical.

Once the rigorous design process was over, all I had to do was crochet! I used a 4mm hook (which seems to be my standard these days), using Wendy Supreme DK acrylic yarn for the blue and Women’s Institute DK acrylic for the white. The yarns are slightly different weights/ thicknesses, but I actually didn’t mind in this context, because the thicker white yarn makes the clouds look slightly fluffier and I was fine with that. I did actually have to re-do the back panel almost in full, as well as the sleeve ribbing, but can’t be bothered to go into the whole story as it’ll not be a riveting read!

The total weight after adding the ribbing is 230g (26g was the ribbing). I used approximately 20g of the white yarn, therefore 210g of the blue. And I absolutely love the outcome! It looks exactly how I envisaged it and I’m so proud of what I achieved with this one. It might be my favourite thing I’ve made to date…

Also, just want to say that September marked 1 year of crochet. I’m not sure if ‘life changing’ might be a little extreme here, but learning crochet has had a serious impact in my life in the best possible way. Once I got over the initial hurdle/ struggle of learning it, I felt like I found my ‘thing’. It’s so versatile in terms of what you can create and there’s so many different styles and directions you can take it in. It’s a great mix of creativity and practicality and it’s got such a calming feeling when you’re creating something. I also love just coming up with a design or idea for something and then seeing it being brought to life in my hands <3