Knitted Snowflake Winter Cardigan

This week I want to share with you my Knitted Snowflake Winter Cardigan.   This is not something that I planned on making.   This was inspired by the latest release of yarn that Aldi had a couple of weeks ago.  I don't normally buy their double knit yarn, I find it quite thin and personally don't really use double knit acrylic much so I wasn't originally going to get any.   However, I found myself in my local store on release day and I fell in love with it.   It is super soft and the colours are so beautiful and so some found its way into my basket, along with some of the red, white and green mix.   The day I bought it I ended up using it as a trim on a dress (which I will share with you next week), but it inspired me so much to create this winter cardigan and the colours are just perfect for it.  Coincidentally this yarn is named snowflake and this is exactly how this cardigan has come out, like little snowflakes!

Having really enjoyed knitting Oliver's Pirate Costume I decided to have a go at knitting this one too.   In fact it pretty much uses all the same sort of stitches and ideas, but on much smaller needles.   The difference in knitting with double knit and chunky is quite large!   This took a lot longer to work up and was a lot more fiddly and reminded me why I much prefer to crochet over knit!   That said it has knitted up beautifully.   Parts of the cardigan started to pool without my even trying to get it to do so and I love how this created some lovely snowball effects in amongst the light blue to give the effect of a snowy day!   The back top half even started to give an argyle effect and this has definitely given me the idea to try and make a planned pooling crochet scarf using this yarn when I get some time.

The edge of this cardigan is done in a double rib stitch and the rest is worked up the usual 1 row of knit and 1 row of purl.   Its made in pieces and joined together.  The part I am most proud of is achieving the rib band along the side and back of the neck of the jumper.   I managed (with the help of a crochet hook) to cast of stitches through the edge of the cardigan and then used my needles with the cable in the middle (I have never actually used them before) to work the edge and I was really pleased with the effect.   I have no idea if this is a normal technique for knitting, or just something I figured out as I have a stronger crochet background but my hook and Tunisian Crochet knowledge definitely helped with this one!   I was especially pleased that I managed to figure out adding button holes to the side band too!

To finish the cardigan off, I added 5 little light blue buttons, which I happened to have in my stash but that paired beautifully with the colours of this yarn.   I also added a snowflake motif on one side of the cardigan in a silver yarn that I picked up in Aldi earlier in the year.   The motif is actually done in crochet ( I am not sure I have the knitting skills to knit one) and is a pattern I found from

blog.   Sometimes there is just no need to design something if someone has already made it exactly how I wanted it to look and this is definitely the case here.   After crocheting it up I simply sewed it on.

Overall I am happy with the cardigan, I think I could have made it a little larger so it would have fitted Lily a little longer, but it fits her nicely and will work for the rest of this winter and she seems to love wearing it.   If you would like to make your own then you can get the pattern for the Knitted Snowflake Winter Cardigan for age 3-4 below.   At some point in the new year, I will look at adding other sizes to some of my clothing designs and I have the idea of doing a blog post on how to adjust the size of clothing to fit whoever you are making it for.   But for now, I hope you enjoy this cardigan in the size it is written.

Join me next week for a matching Winter Dress & Headband.

Vicky x

Knitted Snowflake Cardigan

 

1.  Materials and Resources

Below is a list of everything you will need to make this hat

·        Aldi Rainbow DK yarn – 100g balls in the following colour;

o   Snowflake (3 balls)

·        Small amount of Aldi silver yarn DK

·        3.5mm & 4mm needles & 4mm crochet hook

·        3.5mm cable needles

·        5 x 15mm light blue buttons

·        Tapestry needle

·        Scissors

·        Stitch holder (x 3)

 

2.   Stitch List

Below is a list of all the stitches (and their abbreviations) featured in this series of patterns.  All terms used are American.

·        K – knit

·        P – purl

·        Button holes – cast off 2, turn work, cast on 2 stitches, turn work knit the two stitches just cast on (then continue with pattern)

 

 

3.  Notes

Here are a few handy tips to help you with the pattern.

·        The gauge for this cardigan is 20 stitches and 26 rows in the 4mm needles working alternate rows of knit and purl

·        The cardigan is made in 5 sections and sewn together with a finishing band

·        The edging is best worked on needles with a cable in between

·        This cardigan is designed to fit a child around age 4, the finished measurements are;  52cm chest (this has some stretch) and 34cm in length.

  

4.  Pattern

Back – work 1 in snowflake in 3.5mm needles

Row	Instruction	Stitches
1	Cast of 54 stitches	54
2	(K2, P2) to end	54
3	(P2, K2) to end	54
4-7	Rep rows 1 * 2	54
	Change to 4mm needles
8	K 54	54
9	P 54	54
10-81	Rep rows 8-9	54
82	Cast off 12 stitches, put next 30 stitches on a stitch holder, cast of 12 remaining stitches

 

Right Front Piece – Work in snowflake in 3.5mm needles

Row	Instruction	Stitches
1	Cast on 28	28
2	(K2, P2) to end	28
3-7	Rep row 2	28
	Change to 4mm needles
8	K 28	28
9	P 28	28
10-81	Rep rows 8 & 9	28
82	Cast of 12 stitches, put remaining stitches on a stitch holder

  

Left Front Piece – Work in snowflake in 3.5mm needles

Row	Instruction	Stitches
1	Cast on 28	28
2	(K2, P2) to end	28
3-7	Rep row 2	28
	Change to 4mm needles
8	K 28	28
9	P 28	28
10-81	Rep rows 8 & 9	28
82	put 16 stitches on stitch holder, cast of remaining 12 stitches

 

Sleeves – Work in 2 snowflake in 3.5mm needles

Row	Instruction	Stitches
1	Cast on 52	52
2	(K2, P2) to end	52
3-7	Rep row 2	52
	Change to 4mm needles
8	K 28	52
9	P 28	52
10-71	Rep rows 8 & 9	52
72	Cast off 52 stitches

  

To put together;

1.     Holding right sides together, sew together the shoulder sections of the back and front pieces (the cast of 12 parts of both front pieces should match with the back piece)

2.     Holding right sides together, sew front pieces of the cardigan to the back along the sides, starting from the rib base and leaving a 10 cm gap to the shoulder on each side.

3.     Hold each sleeves right sides together and sew up the long side

4.     Places each sleeve so right sides are together and the seem of the sleeve is in the same places as the side seems of the cardigan and sew the sleeves in place.

5.     Sew in all ends

 

Cardigan Edging – Work in snowflake in 3.5mm needles with cable attached

Row	Instruction	Stitches
1	Starting at the bottom left corner of the cardigan (with it facing you) pick up a loop for each row of the side of the cardigan, (cut the yarn here) when you get to the stitch markers, place the stitches from the front left, back and then front right on to the needle, then (with new yarn) pick up a stitch from each of the rows on the right side of the cardigan.   You should now have 214 stitches on your needle looping around the inside edge of the cardigan	214
2	(K2, P2) to end	214
3-4	Rep row 2	214
5	K2, P2, make button hole across next 2 stitches, P2, (K2, P2, K2, P2, K2, P2, make button hole across next 2 stitches, P2) x 4 then (K2, P2) to end	204 & 5 button holes
6-7	Rep row 2	214
8	Cast off and sew in ends

 

To finish

·        Sew 5 buttons opposite button holes.

·        Using silver & 4mm crochet hook, make a snowflake using this pattern by Attic24. https://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/crochet-snowflake.html

·        Sew snowflake to the front of the cardigan

© All patterns on this page belong to www.cosycrochet.co.uk You may not sell this pattern. Please feel free to sell the items you make using this pattern, however please acknowledge me in your listing.