The linen and lace cardigan by Annelies Baes is available on Ravelry for just 1€. After testing out Euroflax sport 100% linen yarn by Louet with my Chambray Jacket, I thought I’d make something a little more complex. The pattern is a top-down crochet pattern that is worked in one piece. Starting with the yoke, I crocheted half double crochet stitches to form the fronts, back, and sleeve tops. After several rows, the pattern divides the one-piece yoke to create armholes. After I finished the body, I crocheted the arms to three-quarter length. My folks said that a short-sleeve cardigan looked nice too, but I wanted to follow the pattern more closely this first time.

After the body and arms are done, the lace part of the Linen and Lace Cardigan comes out. I crocheted four rows of lace along the front and neck edging, and five rows at the sleeves. I’m pretty happy with how this cardigan turned out; however, since I used a 100% linen yarn that doesn’t have much (or any) stretch, the elbows of this cardigan tend to bag out after a whole day of wear.

I made the linen and lace cardigan out of Louet Euroflax Sport yarn, a 100% linen yarn. After washing, the yarn gets nice and soft; unfortunately, though, it gives off a lot of lint! This is the second pattern I’ve made by designer Annelies Baes; I also made the moss stitch cardigan from Crochet One-Skein Wonders® for Babies: 101 Projects for Infants & Toddlers. Annelies Baes says that she likes designing top-down, seamless cardigans with shaping, and I’ve got my eye on some of her other patterns!

I crocheted the linen and lace cardigan in size 16. I stopped crocheting the body after 40 rows. I added two rows of decreases for waist shaping, and then stopped the increases after I reached 40 rows. For the sleeves, I crocheted 36 rounds and ended in 55 stitches, so the sleeves would be slightly tighter.

Overall I’m happy with the cardigan, and I would love to make it again in another fibre and in different colours. The top-down construction allowed me to try on the cardigan as I progressed so I could check the sizing. The fit and lack of seaming allowed me to work this up in just a couple weeks. I’ve even got my eye on a couple other crochet tops from Top-Down Crochet Sweaters: Fabulous Patterns with Perfect Fit!

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