Have you ever managed to get a stain on a jumper you just can’t remove?

Rather than popping it into a clothes bank for recycling, why not try a “crochet-cover-up”? The first manoeuvre in the cover-up operation is to rummage through your yarn stash to check out your options.

My first thought was to make a calming colour cuff …

…..but then again, a contrasting zingy colour would be fun…

….or the safety option (its a work jumper) with some good old black or white?

Its always worth checking out the yarn and jumper care label to see if they are similar – this was the deciding feature for me – the black yarn won!

To gauge the cuff size measure the circumference of your wrist where the cuff was – 7.5 inches / 19cm for me. Also measure around the widest part of your hand over which the cuff would have to pass – 9 inches / 23cm.

As my jumper is made of a stretch material and I wanted the cuff to fit snuggly I searched the internet for a crochet pattern with stretch. Voila! A Genius Headband Pattern by Elizabeth Alan aka “The Lovely Crow”. Perfect!

If you take a look at the pattern you will see the Genius Headband Pattern consists of a net design  – hence the stretch. The headband has a short foundation chain which creates 3 holes or ovals across its width. To make sure I covered up all the cuff ribbing on my jumper, I tripled the size of the band to give me 9 ovals across the width.

The repeating pattern is really easy to follow.

You continue working the pattern until the fabric is long enough for your needs.

Un-stretched my net measured 18 cm or 7 inches – close enough to the 7.5inches I needed.

Stretched the crochet net came in a 26cm or 10 inches – totally genius! Perfect!

Fold your crochet net in half and sew up the seam to form a tube – it always helps at this stage if you make sure the cuff fits! I then added a frilly edge to one end of the cuff for a bit of glamour.

So here it is  – one finished cuff!

The last thing to do is put the cuff over the jumper – you can either sew them together or leave them separate for making life easier when it comes to washing!

One collar or flower later and Voila! A total crochet cuff cover up!