I started knitting the cardigan from the neckline. I cast on 56 stitches and knitted 6 rows in garter stitch. On row 7 I began the leaf pattern. The pattern repeat on the first row is 4 stitches.
Once the leaves were finished, I added the blue yarn. I knitted 3 stitches in pink and 3 in blue; on the return row I purled the pink stitches and knitted the blue ones. On the next row I knitted the pink stitches and purled the blue ones. I worked 7 rows altogether. Knitted this way, it looks as though a blue ribbon or strand of yarn has been threaded through.
Then I continued in garter stitch until the raglan section measured 13 cm and started shaping the armholes. There were 168 stitches on the needle altogether.
I allowed 54 stitches for the two fronts together, 54 for the back and 60 for the sleeves.
As 30 stitches for each sleeve seemed a little narrow, I did it like this:
I knitted 27 stitches, threaded waste yarn through the next 30 stitches (a holder needle only gets in the way), cast on 9 stitches, knitted 54 stitches for the back, slipped another 30 stitches onto waste yarn, cast on 9 stitches and knitted the other 27 front stitches. That left 126 stitches on the needles. I knitted two rows in garter stitch and then started the pattern.
The pattern repeat is 18 stitches and I had 126 stitches.
As I had very little pink yarn, I decided to make it two-coloured.
I knitted the first four rows in pink, then the next four rows, which appear as purl stitches on the right side, in blue.
I continued like this for 15 cm, which with my yarn gave five pattern repeats. Then I worked garter stitch in pink and finished with blue garter stitch, making 17 cm in total. The back length was 30 cm.
Then I picked up the sleeve stitches. I started at the centre underneath the sleeve, at the side seam. I picked up 40 stitches for one sleeve and knitted in the round on double-pointed needles. The first round was knit, the second purl, then 6 cm of pink stocking stitch. Next I knitted 2 stitches in pink, 2 in blue around the whole round. For the next two rounds I knitted the pink stitches and purled the blue ones. Then I knitted three rounds in pink and changed to blue. At first I wanted to use the same leaf pattern as on the raglan, but it seemed that increasing that way would make the sleeve too wide, so I made a pattern similar to the body but slightly different. The repeat is 17 stitches and I needed to increase 11 stitches. I increased 3 stitches on three needles and 2 on the fourth, all on the first blue round.
Round 1 – knit
Round 2 – 3 times knit 2 together, yarn over, knit, yarn over, knit, yarn over, knit, yarn over, knit, yarn over, knit, yarn over, 3 times knit 2 together…
Round 3 – 3 purl, 11 knit, 6 purl, 11 knit; on the final needle there were 3 purl stitches left at the end and the pattern joined up neatly.
Round 4 – knit all stitches
Round 5 – I began a new pattern repeat. According to the chart I should have knitted one more plain knit round first.
I knitted 6 cm, then two purl rows and finished the sleeve by decreasing with knit slip-over decreases. The inside sleeve length is 15 cm.
I crocheted the front edges of the cardigan in double crochet. Two rows of double crochet, then a buttonhole row and another two rows of double crochet. On the other side I made five rows of double crochet.
In keeping with my little obsession that anything made from yarn should have buttons made from yarn too, I made buttons from yarn.
The idea and patterns for the cardigan
HAT
I had planned to knit the hat in the round as well, but I could not locate my small circular needles and knitting it on double-pointed needles seemed far too awkward. So I knitted it back and forth and grafted the seam together.
To begin, I cast on 56 stitches in blue; the pattern repeat is 14 stitches. I knitted 10 rows in stocking stitch so the edge would roll. Then I worked 1×1 rib: on right-side rows I slipped the knit stitches without knitting and knitted the purl stitches; on return rows I knitted ordinary 1 knit, 1 purl rib. I worked 3 cm like this.
On a return row I changed to pink yarn and purled. The pattern comes from Leili Reimann’s ‘Pitsilised koekirjad’.
After knitting 9 cm of the hat in pink, I brought in the blue yarn. I also decreased stitches on the first row. I made sure that the edges and tips of the leaves had knit stitches in blue. I knitted 2 pink purl stitches together in pink using a knit decrease. In my case that meant: knit, knit 2 together, knit, purl, knit, purl, knit, purl, knit, purl, knit, knit 2 together, knit, knit 2 together, knit, purl… to the end of the row.
On the return row I knitted all decreased stitches in pink and purled the blue stitches, like ordinary 1×1 rib. On the next right-side row I worked the rib only with blue yarn, again slipping the knit stitches without knitting them.
After 4 cm I started decreasing the hat: I knitted 3 stitches together all the way across the row, worked the return row, then on the next row knitted 2 stitches together and on the following return row knitted all remaining stitches together.
I like to graft seams on knitted pieces. I grafted the blue sections with blue yarn and the pink sections with pink. Even I find it difficult to see where the grafted seam is. But here it is – let’s do it together in three parts.
