Rosie Cardigan (Test Knit)
Finished
January 31, 2017
February 17, 2017

Rosie Cardigan (Test Knit)

Project info
Rosie by Jennifer Wood
Knitting
SweaterCardigan
Test for Jennifer Wood
36 (Note that my yardage shown below was for full-length sleeves.)
Needles & yarn
US 6 - 4.0 mm
22 stitches and 28 rows = 4 inches
in stockinette
Stylecraft Breeze Double Knitting
7.65 skeins = 1063.4 yards (972.3 meters), 382 grams
67987
Pink
Deramores
June 1, 2012
Notes

Second photo was taken on Easter 2017 with flowers from my garden. It’s my favorite time of year.

Photos with Jamie were taken at Stitches West on 2/25/17. View more of my SW pictures here.

SO excited for the privilege of test knitting for the SUPER talented Jennifer Wood. She’s up there in my top 3 favorite designers. Possibly putting her at the top of my list due to her fantastic top-down contiguous methods and superb pattern writing.

Stitches West is a yearly event held at the Santa Clara Convention Center in San Jose, CA. That’s me on the right and Jamie on the left modeling our beautiful Rosie Cardigans. We had such a fun time knitting these.

I knit a little tighter than most continental knitters so I have gone up a needle size. Gauge shown above is from the yarn label. My gauge is as stated in pattern.

I did 5 repeats of the Back Chart. Ended after Row #8 on the Buttonhole Chart (during 5th repeat). Also, I chose to do twisted rib at bottom, cuffs and neckline in keeping with the cable design. My sleeves are full-length rather than 3/4 as shown in the pattern photos. Cast-off normally per stitch pattern. Fit was perfect, although some people might like a little waist shaping.

I’m very pleased with this project. The yarn is outstanding. Can’t imagine why Stylecraft discontinued it. Out of the 8 balls used, there was not a single join in any of them! The acrylic and polyamide in this yarn helps the cotton hold its shape. Love this soft heather color.

Here’s how I did my neckline:

The left side of the sweater (button side) has a reverse stockinette facing that is turned under to give extra support to the buttons. (See diagram and photo on last page of the pattern.) There is a row of twisted knit stitches that extends the full length of the cardigan and which marks the turning edge for this facing. The neckband is included as part of the facing, so it’s actually double thickness and gets turned under as well. I picked up 126 sts total for my size 36 cardigan as follows:

Starting at right front (RS), picked up 4 out of every 5 sts until the left front facing. Then 1 st for the left front facing turning stitch and 12 stitches for the facing. Make sure you pick up an EVEN number of stitches, whatever your size. When I pick up sts, I pull the sts snuggly around the circular CABLE rather than the needle. A tiny needle works best. I used size 2.25 mm needle just for picking up the sts. Then on Row 1 of the neckband, I switched to size 5 needle (US), then back to size 6 needle (US) which is what I used to knit my sweater. I bound off using size 5 needle (US).

Row 1 (WS): K12, Ptbl (turning st), ^(K1, Ptbl); repeat from ^ to last st, K1.

Row 2 (RS): K1, ^(Ktbl, P1); repeat from ^ to last 13 sts, K1 tbl (turning st), P12.

Repeat Row 1.

Next Row (RS): Work 5 sts, (YO, K2tog = buttonhole), work to end.

Repeat Rows 1 & 2.

Repeat Row 1 once more.

BO in pattern.

Note: If you are not doing twisted ribbing, substitute Knit st for Ktbl and Purl st for Ptbl.

Crocheted Yarn Buttons (Make 5):

Jennifer’s instructions are a good starting point, but I had to add a little to make mine larger and rounder. Using a size G/6/4.25mm crochet hook, I chained 4 instead of 3 to begin. After following the directions in the pattern, I used a tapestry needle to weave in and out until the buttons were more round and a little larger. See my photo at bottom left. Crocheted buttons are perfect for this cardigan since they mimic the bobbles on the back of the sweater. I had 4.5-inch/11.4 cm spacing between my buttons, but the yarn you use, your size and your row gauge will determine the exact spacing. One tester opted to double up on the amount of buttons. She did buttonholes on rows 14 and 28 of the buttonhole chart rather than on just row 28.

Rather than yarn, I used sewing thread to sew the left front facing in place underneath. Jennifer has a couple of helpful video tutorials showing how to do this using yarn.

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Finished
January 31, 2017
February 17, 2017
 
About this pattern
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About this yarn
by Stylecraft
DK
45% Nylon, 30% Cotton, 25% Acrylic
139 yards / 50 grams

78 projects

stashed 58 times

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  • Project created: January 28, 2017
  • Finished: February 17, 2017
  • Updated: October 18, 2017
  • Progress updates: 11 updates