Crochet Striped Off-the-Shoulder Sweater for Beginners

This sweater is made in one piece with almost no sewing. You work the front in stripes from the hem up to the shoulders, make the wide neckline with a long chain, and carry straight on down the back. As you work the back, you slip stitch its edges to the front, so the side seams close themselves. The sleeves are then worked in rounds from the armholes.

It's a long project (Elise's video on her lilthings channel runs over an hour), but every part is plain double crochet in rows or rounds.

Video tutorial by Elise on her YouTube channel, lilthings: watch "crochet cozy sweater for beginner | crochet off shoulder top step by step" on YouTube.

Written from the video. The numbers below are Elise's size, about 50 cm across; adjust the chain for your own.

Materials

• 8-ply or 5-ply yarn in blue and white
• 4.0 mm hook
• A tape measure, stitch markers, scissors and a darning needle

Front (rows 1 to 36)

Foundation: with blue, chain 90 (about 50 cm). Row 1 goes into the back bumps of the chain, which gives a neat bottom edge.

Start every row with Elise's twist start instead of a chain: pull the loop on the hook up to the height of a double crochet, twist it by rotating the hook downwards, yarn over and pull through the middle of the twist, then yarn over and pull through 2. It looks like a real stitch and leaves no gap. Then work 89 dc across. (90)

Stripes:

Change colour on the last two loops of the 90th stitch, and crochet over the tails on the next row.

Neckline (row 37)

Chain 1, then:

• 24 sc across the right shoulder,
• chain 42 (check it isn't twisted), skipping the 42 middle stitches,
• 24 sc across the left shoulder.

The 42-chain is the wide boat neckline. You'll work the back into it.

Back and side seams

Work down the back: 4 rows blue (working into the back bumps of the 42 chains in the first row), 8 rows white, 4 rows blue. This first part leaves the armholes open.

Then fold the back down over the front and keep working the stripes, matching the front's. At the end of every row, join it to the front's matching row with 3 slip stitches into the front's edge. The side seams close as you go.

Sleeves

Join blue at an armhole. Work 2 dc into each row end round the armhole. Where the rows are short (the side with fewer rows), work 2 stitches together so both sleeves end up with the same count. Then work 32 joined rounds of dc, in stripes of 8 rounds blue and 8 rounds white, to the wrist.

Tips

• Stripes must match. Count the rows of each stripe on the front so the back's stripes line up at the side seams.
• Measure the neck. Try the front on at row 36 to check the 42-chain neckline sits off your shoulders.
• Sleeve length: try on before the last stripe, and work more or fewer rounds.

Frequently asked questions