Is anyone feeling super nostalgic for the way things used to be when it came to blogging and creative endeavors? Once upon a time, I made tons of friends because I was a blogger and so were they and we followed each other’s blogs, commented all over them, and supported one another. And the blog tours? Oh the blog tours!! They were so fun and community driven.

I think part of me missing that era was that I also constantly was taking the time to document everything that I created. Big or small, I took photos with my “real” camera and talked about what I made. And because of it, I have this incredible catalog of things I created with my own two hands. And I’d really like to try and get back to that. I’m fully aware I’m never going to be blog famous and people won’t be joining me on this journey exactly, but why would that be a goal of mine anyway? Creating + capturing things is really all I’m here for anyway.

So here’s a small step back into that life. I crocheted myself a new cardigan and as soon as all of the ends were woven in, I headed outside to snap some photos. I’m a little rusty in front of the camera, but you get what you get, right?

Here’s my new cardigan, y’all! Isn’t she cute?

In true Katy fashion, I just winged it. I had an idea of what I wanted…but the reality is that I just kept going until I decided it was finished. I knew I wanted a cropped length sweater with sunburst granny squares at the middle back…but beyond that, I kind of just made it up as I went along.

The base of the cardigan is just a simple hexi-cardi. I made 3 sides of the hexagon with a granny stitch, and the other 3 sides with a simple double crochet. That resulted in the sleeves only being the granny stitch and the body being more solid/basic. I think when I make another, I’m going to mix it up a little bit, so there’s a little more interest in the placement of the stitches. I also realized that I should had made the body a lot smaller at first, because by the time I added the squares in the middle-back, it made the cardi way more oversized than I wanted it to be.

Which is why I added these two buttons at the bottom so it’ll give this cross-over effect. I was ::so super close:: to adding ties to the bottom and making it a wrap. But I also get super annoyed with ties when I wear them, so that’s why the buttons ended up being the winner.

But let’s all be honest with ourselves for a moment. The real start of this cardigan show is the back. I really wanted a floral square of some sort but I wanted to keep the single color of yarn, so I figured that a sunburst square would be best. I am in love. These turned out SO PRETTY and it looks like I did more work than I really did. These squares are so easy to make, but they look stunning like this.

Didn’t this turn out so pretty?

I debated for quite some time about the sleeves. I was going to leave them short like this at first, with them rolled up for a cuff look. But then I actually did crochet a full graded sleeve…..and then promptly ran out of fabric before I could even finish the cuff stitches on just one of the sleeves. I went to Michaels this morning and they were out of the color yarn I needed, and since I haaaaaaate leaving project unfinished (because I have zero chill/patience) I decided that my original short-sleeved idea was actually perfect.

I just rolled the sleeve slightly and then added stitches at the top and bottom of each sleeve to hold the cuff in place. Cute, cute. A perfect fall / spring cardigan if you ask me!

And in case you’re wondering what it looks like as an open cardigan, not to worry. I took pictures of that too! I’ve never been an oversized clothing kinda gal, so I do struggle to wear things that have so much ease. But I think because it’s cropped, it doesn’t make me feel like I’m lost in it. I don’t love how the back looks when it’s open as much, just because the yarn isn’t giving tons of drape…so if I wear it, it’ll probably always be buttoned shut. But it’s still super cute both ways.

What do you think? Do we have a winner with this make of mine?