Ohhhhh boy. I can’t even begin to explain how much I love this sweater, y’all. As soon as I finished up on the Sunburst Hexi Cardigan last week, I IMMEDIATELY began on this cutie. I couldn’t get the idea out of my head.

I really wanted to take what I’d learned from my adventures in crocheting the cardigan and make myself a sweater, with some tweaks to the construction. In reality, they are the same base. But they do have their own sweet little differences and I can’t decide which I like more.

I began the construction in the same manner, which means that the sleeve/bodice portion began as a hexagon. This time, I alternated between each section with granny stitches and regular Double Crochet stitches. That way, when I folded it to start creating the sleeve/bodice shaping, it would have an interesting change in stitches.

I absolutely love this decision of mine and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

The sleeves on this are slimmer than my cardigan version. I only did 16 rounds on each hexagon before I joined them at the top sleeve. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to grade the sleeve in as it worked toward my wrist, but I actually like it a little oversized like this. Had it been wider, I would have definitely slimmed it up.

After joining at the shoulder seam, I added an additional three rounds of stitches, so I could add to the shoulder section and give the bodice a bit more length. After those three rounds, I went back and forth on only the bottom hem with an extra six rows, to again add some more length to the bodice.

And then came the stunner starburst granny squares! I made a total of seven…three for the front and four for the back. I wanted extra room on the front neckline than on the back, because I really hate things up close around my neck. It could probably be lower, if I’m being honest, but I would have needed to add more rows to the length so they’d end up further from the sleeve cap, or I need to come up with a slightly smaller square. There’s always a next time, right?

My deep and undying love remains for how these squares stitch up in a single color. They’re so stinking pretty.

After I joined everything, I added two more rows of regular DC stitches to the bottom, and then did a repeating pattern of 2 FPDC, 1 BPDC five (??) times, to get the lovely textured bottom band. It’s the same as I did for the cardigan, I just made this one with a couple more rows.

For the sleeves, I just did twenty rounds of granny stitches and then a round of DC, followed by 2 rounds of the repeating pattern of 2 FPDC, 1 BPDC. The neckline was finished very similarly. I didn’t want the collar to be super wide, so I kept both at a minimal.

Not sewing / crochet related…but let’s take a moment for these pants. Ha. I picked them up today while I was hunting for a new pair of jeans. And while I ::did not whatsoever:: find jeans worth buying, I thought these would be super cute to wear for my upcoming business trip. Maybe I’ll even iron them before I take them with me. Because I am very aware of how wrinkly they are in these photos and I refuse to apologize for my eagerness to throw them on for this quick photoshoot.

Can we just all agree that this sweater turned out super cute and it might be one of the best I’ve made in a long time?

I. Am. Smitten.