Crochet Long-Sleeve Mesh Shrug with a Scoop Neck

A mesh shrug is a lovely layering piece: light, airy and quick, because open mesh grows fast. This one has long sleeves and a scoop neckline. Shaping a neckline usually means decreases, but Elise's method avoids them. On the front, she simply works shorter stitches towards the middle, trebles at the shoulders down to half doubles at the centre, and the neckline curves by itself.

The video is on her lilthings channel and is aimed at beginners trying their first garment.

Video tutorial by Elise on her YouTube channel, lilthings: watch "crochet shrug🎀mesh top, long sleeves mesh sweater for beginner tutorial" on YouTube.

Written from the video. The neckline shaping is best watched once before you try it.

Materials

• About 300 g (6 balls) of 5-ply milk cotton
• 3.5 mm or 4.0 mm hook
• Stitch markers, a tape measure, scissors and a darning needle

How it fits together

The shrug is worked from the bottom up in rounds, then split into a front and a back. The shoulders are seamed, and the sleeves are worked in rounds straight from the armholes.

Pattern

Bottom edge

Chain 156, or any even number that goes around your chest, and join into a ring without twisting.

Round 1: chain 2, work 156 dc around.

Mesh body (rounds 2 to 4)

Chain 4 (it counts as 1 tr and a chain 1). [Skip 1 stitch, 1 tr in the next stitch, chain 1] around, and join. You get 78 mesh windows, one for every 2 stitches. Work two more rounds of mesh, putting each tr into a tr and each chain 1 over a chain 1.

The mesh is one treble and one chain per window; the grid and filet calculator can help you plan different widths.

Front and back (rows 5 to 14)

Split the windows in half: 39 for the back and 39 for the front. Work them separately, in rows.

• Back: keep working [tr, chain 1] mesh rows straight up to the shoulder.
• Front: for the scoop neck, keep the mesh rhythm but change the stitch height across the row: trebles at the outer shoulders, then extended double crochets, then ordinary double crochets, and half doubles across the centre chest. Each step down is shorter, so the middle grows more slowly than the sides, and the neck dips into a curve.

Shoulders and sleeves

Seam the outer shoulder windows of the front and back together. Join yarn at an armhole and work [1 tr, chain 1] mesh rounds down the arm to the wrist. Finish with a slight flare or a bow tie at the cuff. Repeat for the other sleeve.

Tips

• Even chain count. The mesh needs 2 stitches per window, so the chain has to be even.
• Measure the back against your own shoulders before seaming. A mesh shrug should sit just on the shoulders.
• Count windows, not stitches. In mesh, it's much easier to see and count the holes.

Frequently asked questions