Valley Yarns Noemi Cardigan Knitting Pattern

Valley Yarns Noemi Cardigan

What is Being Made

The Noemi Cardigan is a lightweight, elegant cardigan designed by Kirsten Hipsky. This garment features a bottom-up construction with raglan sleeves and is adorned with bands of classic feather and fan lace throughout. The cardigan is available in six sizes, with finished chest measurements ranging from 36 inches to 60 inches, making it suitable for a wide range of body types. The design is described as being as light as a feather and as soft as a breeze, making it an ideal layering piece for transitional seasons.

Techniques Used

This advanced beginner knitting project employs several key techniques:

• Bottom-up construction: The cardigan is knit from the lower body upward, with the lower body worked first before being set aside to work the sleeves separately.
• Raglan sleeve shaping: The sleeves are integrated into the body using raglan-style increases, which creates a smooth, diagonal line from the underarm to the neckline.
• Lace patterning: Bands of feather and fan lace are incorporated throughout the design, requiring yarn-over and decrease techniques to create the characteristic openwork.
• Seamed construction: The garment uses seaming to join pieces together, providing structure and durability to the finished cardigan.
• Button closure: The cardigan features a button closure using two buttons sewn together to form the fastening mechanism.

Stitches Used

The Noemi Cardigan utilizes fundamental knitting stitches combined with lace techniques:

• Stockinette stitch (St st): The primary stitch used for the body and sleeves, creating a smooth, classic fabric.
• Feather and fan lace pattern: This traditional lace stitch combines knit two together decreases (k2tog), yarn-overs (yo), and knit stitches to create the distinctive openwork bands. The pattern repeat involves [k2tog] twice, followed by [yo, k1] three times and yo, then [k2tog] twice again.
• Garter stitch: Used for the initial cast-on row (knit on the wrong side) to create a stable foundation.

Materials

The Noemi Cardigan is designed to be worked in Valley Yarns Southampton, a luxurious blend of 72% kid mohair and 28% mulberry silk. The yarn is available in color 024 slate blue. Yardage requirements range from 920 yards (4 skeins for the smallest size) to 1,610 yards (7 skeins for the largest sizes), with each skein providing 230 yards of yardage at 25 grams.

Needles required include US size 5 (3.75mm) circular needles in a 40-inch length for working the body in the round, as well as double-pointed needles of the same size for working the sleeves in the round. The gauge is 5.5 stitches and 7.5 rows per inch in stockinette stitch, which is essential to achieving the correct finished measurements.

Additional materials needed include 6 stitch markers to track pattern repeats and construction points, a stitch holder for securing stitches during assembly, and 2 buttons that are sewn together to create the cardigan closure.

Construction Details

The lower body is cast on using a provisional method, with stitches distributed across the circular needle to create the front panels, side seams, and back panel. The feather and fan lace pattern is worked in rows, alternating between right-side rows that contain the lace motif and wrong-side rows that are worked in stockinette. The lower body is worked to a length of 16 inches or to the desired length before being set aside.

The sleeves are worked separately in the round using double-pointed needles, beginning with 50 stitches divided evenly among the needles. Increases are worked at the beginning and end of each sleeve at regular intervals (every 3rd to 8th round, depending on size) to create the raglan shaping. Once the sleeves reach 16 inches in length, stitches are bound off at the underarm to prepare for joining with the body.