Vendée sweater – the basics

***A corrected version of the pattern is now available at https://nelnanandnora.wordpress.com/2015/01/16/vendee-sweater-full-pattern/***

Vendée Sweater: unexpected crochet

We’ve just returned from a couple of weeks’ camping in France, most of it in the Vendée, on the Atlantic coast. It was cooler and more windy than expected, so what I’d planned as a blanket, inspired by Lucy’s Attic24 Coast Ripple, became a sweater to keep me warm.

I’ll be writing up the method over the next few days in a way that you can adapt to the size and shape that you require. It requires no sewn seams and begins with the neckline and shoulders, followed by the bodice; the sleeves are worked in at the end. Here’s a glimpse of mine, laid flat and in action, and a view across the dunes. We camped at a site just behind the forest, a short walk from the beach.