Having spent a week working on the back of my cardi, it suddenly occurred to me i should check my measurements! Oh dear, despite doing a gauge swatch i discovered that the tension was coming out at 21sts instead of 19 sts, yes i had to pull it all out, lots of it too.

So back to the start and more stitches to compensate for the tighter gauge, at least i discovered my mistake then and not when i had finished the back.

Before i started the cardigan i made a shawl in different crochet stitches, i wasn't working from a pattern. I started with an 8 stitch chain and then increased at the end of each row. i used rows of dc, tr, dc, (UK) and then added clusters, more dc, tr, dc, blackberry stitch etc basket stitch, plaited clusters, basket weave, shell pattern, ripple stitch and finally squares in dc with a little flower appliqued on.My youngest daughter fell in love with it, and has adopted it!