Tropical Breeze Cover-Up

The Tropical Breeze Cover-Up that was published in the June 2013 issue of Crochet World was one of my favorites! It was not the type of garment that I usually make, so it really became an adventure for me.

The construction was interesting -- it is crocheted from top to bottom rather than side-to-side, top down or bottom up.  The piece starts with a sleeve, which is worked in a simple mesh stitch pattern.

Once the sleeve is completed, the really interesting part starts!  At the end of the sleeve, the body stitches are added on to the yoke using a Foundation Single Crochet.  When all stitches have been added, turn the work.  Be sure to place a stitch marker in the last stitch before the "added on" stitches; this marker will separate the Yoke from the Body.

The Body is worked in a modification of the simple mesh stitch pattern of the yoke.  Treble crochets are "crossed over" or "crossed behind" double crochet stitches to create "V"s.

Simple, right?!

I'm posting pictures of my original stitch diagrams that I used while working out the design. A few extra notes may make it easier to make sense of my gibberish (i.e., translate the diagram to the written pattern).

On the diagram, the sleeve stitch pattern ends with Row 4 (WS). At the end of this row, add on the stitches for the body.

The Body section (Body Row 1) in the written pattern corresponds to Row 5 of my diagram.

The 2nd picture shows how the Yoke and Body sections "meet" and move between each other.

I hope you find the diagrams helpful and enjoy the adventure as much as I did!

Happy Stitching!