I love this cardigan. This is the perfect pattern for black yarn. I have been wanting to knit a black cardigan for a while but since most stitches get lost when knitted in black it was difficult to find a good pattern.

My gauge pre-blocking was wicked small so I had to stretch this cardigan within an inch of its life to get it to fit. And it still ended up being 1” smaller and 1” shorter (32” bust, 17” length) than it’s supposed to be. The length is perfect but the arm circumference is a little too tight.

I wanted to be able to wear this cardigan unbuttoned so I made the neckline closer fitting so it wouldn’t flop around.

I picked up 12 stitches for the front shoulders by adding the extra stitches at the neck edge and skipping a neck increase row. Since my pre-block gauge was so small I knew the shoulders wouldn’t stretch enough even with blocking.

I added another 2 rows to the neck rib for more coverage.

I placed stitch markers at the side seams and at the beginning and end of the lace repeat for the sleeves, which really helped me maintain the continuity of the eyelet pattern while decreasing.

I used the magic loop method for the sleeves because knitting with 16” circulars was unpleasant since the sleeve circumference is less than 16”. No one else mentioned this in their project pages, which surprised me.

I used eight 3/4” buttons from Jo-Ann Fabrics and a 7/8” wide grosgrain ribbon, also from Jo-Ann Fabrics, to stabilize the button band using this tutorial.

Total Cost: $20.94

• Yarn: $19.20
• Buttons: $1.05
• Grosgrain Ribbon: $0.69