The “Lovey Dovey Sweater” is a crochet pattern by CozyCreativeCrochets aka Heather Cummings and is available for purchase on her website. I started following her Instagram when the app suggested I might like her page.
Spoiler alert: I do like her stuff!
She has a lot of unique tops that were the style I was after. I love sweaters, but since I live in Texas there aren’t a lot of opportunities to wear them. Plus, I have a ton of cozy, store-bought ones that I rotate through during our 2 weeks of winter. I was looking for some patterns that were long-sleeved, fairly simple to make, and would be appropriate for our climate- maybe something I could wear into spring perhaps?
I’ll post my thoughts and modifications below. I won’t be reposting anything from the pattern specifically.
Review
After Instagram suggested her page, I fell in love with the “Lovey Dovey” sweater. It’s a crop top that would work well with high-waisted jeans and skirts and has a fun, boho vibe. I appreciated that it didn’t call for bulky yarn and instead uses lighter-weight cotton yarn- definitely what I prefer to make clothing items out of these days. It’s also cheaper than bulky yarn, so big plus there.
The pattern itself is fairly easy to follow. It suggests you be an intermediate crocheter and I agree. There were a couple of places I had to re-read to make sure I understood, but all-in-all I don’t think I deviated far from the pattern besides the modifications I made for length and sizing. It’s pretty straightforward how to resize as you go and she gives instructions on how to do so to get you started.
The only real critique I have is the lack of photos. There are only 3 showing the process- e.g. where to attach the yarn to start the sleeves- and 2 of them are practically the same image. It’s the front and back in the same stage of completion. For almost $10 (she does have frequent sales!) I would like more photos detailing what each stage should look like and directions you’ll be crocheting since there is a lot of detaching and reattaching. I’m a very visual learner and images for new-to-me patterns help a great deal.
Yarn
The yarn I used was Hobby Lobby’s “I love this Cotton Yarn” in sage. I bought 5 skeins and went during one of their 30% off all yarn sales. In total it was about $14.
I don’t work with cotton yarn a lot, but as I said earlier, I enjoy using it for wearables. I used to use acrylic yarn, but everything came out so bulky, shapeless, and scratchy. I don’t really like shapeless clothing so a thinner, lighter-weight yarn is welcome when making clothes.
This yarn is really soft, but it also strikes me as being a little thin. It says it’s a weight 4 yarn, but it almost works up as a thicker weight 3. I think this also contributed to my problem of the shirt coming out smaller than the pattern. This might just be a “me” issue though.
The range of colors is great, there are a ton of options. I did notice that the multi-colored skeins had less yardage than the solid colors. Something to keep in mind.
I will definitely be using this brand again for future projects.
Mods
I don’t like 3/4" sleeves. I know that I’ll constantly be trying to pull them down. I like how longer sleeves hit my hands and make my fingers look longer and more feminine. I knew when I bought this pattern that I’d be making the sleeves 1. tighter and 2. longer.
Here’s what I did in order of how the pattern is written:
-I used a “G” (4.25mm) hook throughout the entire pattern.
-For the Sleeves section: I did 42 rounds before starting the decreasing rows that make the cuffs. Note that the poofy part of the sleeves is about 81 stitches on mine- that’s just what I ended up with. Yours may be more or less depending on how big/small you make the bodice.
-I did 2 rounds of decreases to make the cuffs tighter (always try it on to get the fit right!)
-Repeated rounds 32-35 an extra time (3x instead of 2x)
-Then, added 7 rounds of HDC (repeating round 34 essentially)
-When I got the length right on my wrists, I added a row of scallops for cuffs. I used the same row as the one used to finish the bottom of the bodice.
***If you wanted, you could skip the sleeves altogether and have a crop tank top. You’d also save a lot of yarn by doing this. I believe I used two skeins per sleeve and the entire bodice was only one.
Remember that this is all relative. Always try on your piece as you crochet to make sure you’re getting the sizing right. I typically crochet smaller than the pattern so I have to make lots of extra rows to make sure the thing actually fits. One time, I made a top, and it came out looking like it was for a baby, but I used the same hook and yarn as the pattern suggested! Needless to say, I had to add a lot of extra rows on that one. I don’t think I crochet particularly tight, but oh well.
Check out her stuff- she has so many cute patterns. I’ll be getting more too. Already have my eye on a summery crop top.
