Blue Sky Fibers Cotton Sweet Cardi Cardigan Knitting Pattern

Blue Sky Fibers Cotton Sweet Cardi

What Is Being Made

The Cotton Sweet Cardi is a children's cardigan designed by Erika Flory for girls in sizes ranging from 12 months to 10 years. This garment is described as a super swingy trapeze-style cardigan, perfect for active children. The cardi features bracelet-length sleeves and is finished with seed stitch hems for a polished look. The design includes a stranded colorwork detail that adds visual interest while remaining accessible for knitters with advanced beginner experience.

Techniques Used

This cardigan is constructed using several key knitting techniques that build on fundamental skills:

• Bottom-Up Construction: The garment is worked from the bottom edge upward, beginning with cast-on stitches at the lower edge of the back piece.
• Worked Flat: All pieces are knitted flat on straight needles rather than in the round, creating seams that are finished later.
• Seamed Assembly: Individual pieces (back, fronts, and sleeves) are knitted separately and then sewn together using a tapestry needle, allowing for precise shaping and finishing.
• Stranded Colorwork: A color chart is incorporated into the design, requiring the knitter to work with two colors simultaneously using the stranded technique, where unused yarn is carried across the back of the work.

Stitches Used

The Cotton Sweet Cardi employs a limited but effective stitch palette:

• Seed Stitch: Worked over a multiple of 2 stitches by alternating knit and purl stitches in each row. This textured stitch is used for the hem edgings and creates a decorative, reversible fabric with excellent drape. The pattern specifies working seed stitch for 6 to 8 rows at the lower edge before transitioning to stockinette stitch.
• Stockinette Stitch: The primary stitch for the body of the cardigan, created by knitting all stitches on right-side rows and purling all stitches on wrong-side rows. This smooth, classic stitch provides an ideal canvas for the stranded colorwork chart.
• Decreases: K2tog (knit two stitches together) decreases are used for armhole shaping and neckline shaping, creating a fitted silhouette.

Materials and Tools

The Cotton Sweet Cardi is designed to be worked with specific materials that contribute to its soft, child-friendly qualities:

• Yarn: Blue Sky Skinny Cotton, a fine-weight yarn available in 65-gram skeins with 150 yards per skein. The pattern requires 3 to 6 hanks of main color (MC) depending on size, plus 1 hank of contrasting color (CC) for the stranded detail. The example shown uses Mallard #308 as the main color and Gardenia #311 as the contrasting color.
• Needles: Size 5 (3.75 mm) needles, or the size required to obtain the correct gauge for the yarn.
• Notions: A tapestry needle for seaming pieces together, stitch markers for tracking pattern repeats, and 3 to 4 buttons measuring 5/8" for the cardigan front closure.

Pattern Details and Construction Notes

The back piece begins with a cast-on of 72 to 110 stitches depending on size, establishing the width of the garment. The lower edge is worked in seed stitch for 6 to 8 rows, creating a textured hem. The pattern then transitions to stockinette stitch and includes a 9-row color chart worked at a specified point in the construction. Armhole shaping is accomplished by binding off stitches at the beginning of rows and working decreases to create a fitted armhole. Neckline shaping involves binding off center stitches and working decreases on subsequent rows. The experience level is listed as Advanced Beginner, indicating that while the fundamental stitches are straightforward, the combination of techniques—particularly the stranded colorwork and multiple shaping sequences—requires some prior knitting experience.