Loo Loo’s cardigan

Loo Loo’s Cardigan.

I found some lovely soft, bulky yarn in my stash, and wanted to use it up, but couldn’t find a pattern that I liked in her size, or weight of yarn, so decided to make one up myself.  It’s knitted from the top down, has a yoke, and knitted up in 4 days (including unravclling parts of it because they didn’t look quite right!)

Tension :  12st and 17 rows with size 7.5mm needles in a 10cm swatch

Needles used : 6.5mm and 7.5mm straight needles, and 7mm dpns

To fit age 5-6 years. 45cm long, 58cm around chest

Yarn : Chunky,  200g

Dot pattern :

• 1st row (right side), 3rd, 5th and 7th rows, K
• 2nd and 6th rows, P
• 4th row: P2, K1, *P3, K1*, repeat from * to * to last 2st, P2
• 8th row: P3, *P1, K1, P2*, repeat from * to * to last 2st, P2

Cardigan Pattern

• With 6.5mm needles, cast on 49 sts
• Knit 3 rows in moss stitch (K1, P1, K1, P1…. to end of row)
• Row 4, (inc row) still in moss stitch, K8, yo, pm, k1, pm, yo, K7, yo, pm, K1, pm, yo, K15, yo, pm, K1, pm, yo, K7, yo, pm, K1, pm, yo, K8
• Row 5, change to 7.5mm needles and moss stitch to markers, P stitch in between markers, and pick up moss stitch again when out of markers ie knit the same st you knitted in the previous row, and p the stitch you purled in the previous row).
• Row 6, still in moss st to markers, but K the stitch between the markers.
• Row 7, as row 5
• Row 8, (inc row). *Moss st up to the marker, yo, sm, K1, sm, yo *, repeat from * 3 times and then moss stitch to the end.
• Row 9, as row 5
• Row 10, as row 6
• Row 11, as row 5
• Row 12, (inc row) as row 8.
• Repeat rows 9 – 12 5 times
• Next row as row 5
• Next as row 8
• Next row knit, put stitches between 2nd and 3rd markers on st holder, cast on 3 st, knit until stitches between 6th and 7th markers too which you put on a st holder (arms), cast on 3, knit to end
• Commence Dot st pattern at row 2 and continue through the 8 row repeat until cardigan is 2 cm shorter than desired length,  then moss st 4 rows, and cast off loosely
• One arm at a time, with 7mm dpns, pick up and moss st stitches on st holders, plus 1 st either side of 3 cast on, including the cast on, 32 st
• Next row moss st, but k2tog on each end of 3 cast on st (with the additional picked up st that wasn’t on the st holder), 30 st
• Next row cast off, and repeat for other arm
• With 6.5mm needles, pick up 63 st along front edge of cardigan, and moss st 4 rows, and cast off. Repeat for both sides.
• If you want a button hole or more, work out where you want them, and on 2nd moss st row, k2tog, yo (button hole), and carry on.  Otherwise, you can just sew a button on, and the knit is loose enough that you can pop it through the button band on the other side without a hole, depending on the size of the buttons. Or you could use poppers… it’s up to you!  Go creative
• Also, it you want this to meet at the front all the way down, you may want to inc 1 st at either end of the dot pattern rows about 6 times along the length of cardigan.

I hope that you enjoy this pattern, and feel free to tweak it to your hearts content, but please don’t publish it elsewhere, or use it to make money out of, that’s just unfair!

pm = place marker              sm = slip marker knitwise