Dear Diary,
It’s safe to say that the April Cardigan from PeiteKnits has become my go to cardigan pattern. Because it’s on the simpler end of the spectrum for cardigan patterns, it’s really easy to adapt the pattern to suit your own tastes.
Take, for example, this iteration. (Yes, I have made more than one of this pattern)
Instead of going for the solid block of colour that the original pattern calls for, I went for a series of stripes around the bottom edge of the body and the sleeve cuffs. Originally, I was angling for a gentle pink to green gradient, but the striped effect turned out ok.
This was also the first interation where I tried the “perfect” 1×1 ribbing. The end result was that the cuffs and bottom band were a lot snugger than previous iterations. That, and the buttonholes were smaller.
As for the placement of stitch markers, I used the following strategy:
- For dividing up the different sections, I used steel safety-pin style markers and followed the recommendations of the pattern.
- I added a steel marker at the center of the neck edge. This was to make it easier to spread out the stitches for the front band.
- Once I did a few rows, I added markers along the edge to line up with the original stitch division.
- After completing the last neck increase, I added stitch markers on both sides. This was to help with figuring out the placement of the buttons and buttonholes.
- For counting stitches within each section, I placed small coloured ring stitch markers every 20 stitches.
The cast-off was still the tubular bind-off recommended by the pattern. One bit of advice I have for this part is that, when casting off in the round, you should put a stitch marker around the first 2 stitches in the round. When you come to the last 2 stitches, treat the stitches on the marker as if they were still yet to be cast off. I.e. knit and slip off the knit stitch left on the needle, pass the tapestry needle through the knit stitch on the marker purl-wise, purl off the last purl stitch on the needle, take tapestry needle between the stitches on the marker and through the purl stitch on the marker knit-wise.
Love from,
Anna