This pattern was built around buttons. I got these medium Hazelnut buttons at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival from Favour Valley Wordworking. I found them when I was looking for the bear buttons for the Reclaim Poncho with Arm Holes and I wanted to put them to use. I stood in my yarn room (ok it's a guest room, but it has a lot of yarn in it) and saw 6 skeins of Aran Tweed from Briar Rose Fibers and it was a perfect match.

Since I only had 6 skeins I knew this had to be a shorter sweater than I often make.




The sun was not cooperating in my office so I decided to try out using my pottery light setup (above). I think it looks a lot better than this pic even if I can't show it completely hanging.




This pattern uses the rice stitch which is basically just alternating front post and back post double crochet. It's looks like it's open, but it's still a pretty warm stitch.




I used a 5.5 mm hook for this.

Stitches:

ch - chain
sc - single crochet
sc blo - single crochet back loop only
hdc - half double crochet
hdc blo - half double crochet back loop only dc - double crochet
fpdc - front post double crochet
dbdc - back post double crochet
sl st - slip stitch





Cast on 60.
Row 1: Dc in the 3rd chain from the hook, dc in each chain across
Row 2: ch 1, hdc in the first stitch, *fpdc, bpdc. Repeat from *, hdc in the last stitch
Repeat row 2 26 times (total of 28 rows)
Front panels - make 2
Cast on 26
Row 1: Dc in the 3rd chain from the hook, dc in each chain across
Row 2: ch 1, hdc in the first stitch, *fpdc, bpdc. Repeat from *, hdc in the last stitch
Repeat row 2 26 times (total of 28 rows)
Sew the panels together. Make sure that your first row from all 3 panels (which just has the dc) is at the bottom. I like to leave about 2 inches at the bottom before I start sewing. Leave 8 inches for each of the arm holes.




I always start my arms in the arm pit. Make sure the sweater is inside out. The biggest struggle I have with the arms is picking up the same number of stitches. For this pattern I picked up 43 stitches. I decided to make the arms for this sweater extra long. In retrospect, if I had shortened them a couple of rows I could have had a bigger collar.
Row 1: Ch 2, dc in each stitch around picking up 43 stitches
Row 2: ch 1, hdc in the first stitch, *fpdc, bpdc. Repeat from *, Sl st to join
Row 3-11: repeat row 2
Row 12: ch 1, hdc in the first stitch, *fpdc, bpdc. Repeat from *, in the last stitch join 2 together to decrease. Sl st to join
Row 14-18: repeat row 12
For me the decreasing is never an exact science. I try the sleeve on constantly and see if the taper feels right.

For the wrist - cast on 10.
Row 1: hdc in the second stich from the chain, hdc to the end (10 stitches)
Row 2: ch 2, hdc blo to the end
Row 3: ch 2, hdc to the end
Repeat row 2 and 3 until you have 16 rows
Leave a long tail to sew the end together and then onto the end of the sleeve. Important - make sure that you have your sweater and your sleeve both inside out when you sew together.

Repeat for the other arm.




I knew I was running out of yarn so I made the pockets before the collar.

Pockets - make 2
Chain 18
Row 1: Dc in the 3rd chain from the hook, dc in each chain across
Row 2: ch 1, hdc in the first stitch, *fpdc, bpdc. Repeat from *, hdc in the last stitch
Repeat row 2 4 times (total of 6 rows)

Turn your sweater right side out. You're going to start the collar on the bottom right.
I modified this a bit after I played yarn chicken and lost.
Row 1: Ch 2, hdc up over and down
Row 2: Ch 1, sc blo up over and down
Row 3: ch 1, sc up over and down
Row 4: Ch 1, sc blo up over and down




Now you can position the pockets and sew them on. I put mine about 3 inches from the sides and 2 rows up from the bottom. You can adjust as needed.

Last, but not least - the buttons! I had 6 buttons so I positioned them and decided to start 2 inches up and space them out 2 inches up the left side.
It's a really cozy little sweater. This aran tween yarn is pricey, but it's one of my favorites.