Linen cardigan

Usually I prefer sewing to knitting. However, lately I‘ve been knitting a lot and sewing far less. Knitting is simple, you lay on the sofa and knit. I can go on like this for hours.

I found this pattern last year, I loved it but it looked too much work. I love fast things and this one looked like months of work.

I guess you have already noticed that whatever I do it must be “do it now, fast!” Thus, when the muse comes I start immediately, otherwise it might flight away. This is exactly what happened this time too. In the summer, I bought a wonderful linen blend yarn. When I was wondering what to do with it later, I came across this same pattern again. I grabbed the biggest cable needle which would work with this yarn and bound on.

First, I made a gauge and discovered that I needed to cut the number of stitches otherwise the cardigan would be too big. The gauge is a simple knitted piece made to test your own knitting tension with your exact yarn and needles. The purpose is to have a rectangular piece which is big enough so you can measure how many stitches and rows fit into a 10x10 cm (4x4 inches) or 5x5 cm (2x2 inches) square. I usually do the smaller gauge and then multiply the numbers by two. It is the easiest thing to do, just bind on 20-30 stitches and work on the pattern for 20-30 rows. Making so has lots of benefits. You test the pattern, get used to it and measure your yarn and tension to those required by the pattern. Honestly said, I disliked making gauges but I learnt to. Most of the times I made them I got good results afterwards which can’t be said for the other times without gauges.

So, back to the pattern again. The model is Моделът е Way Side Cardigan and it’s free to download. It looks overwhelming but is very easy actually. The pattern is repeated several times per row. I’d only recommend using markers between the repetitions. It’s easy to count and spot errors when they appear.

You can wear it like this. 

Or like this. 

The only one thing that might look not so simple are the cables. If you haven’t done them before, here’s a video lesson about them. Once you start, it’s a matter of practice and attention only. Nothing scary.

It took me a month to finish this one. Too bad it was the last month of summer and I couldn't even try it onK

Let me know what you think!