I didn’t like the finish of Sublime’s pattern for a tied shrug and I’m hoping this pattern, which looks similar, will be better… and it was!

The Sirdar Soft Cotton is just lovely… knits up nice and evenly and feels soft; only problem is it splits easily and if you drop or split a stitch its very hard to get all the threads of it together again. It has a tension of 22 stitches rather than 25 so I’m knitting the 9-12 month size in hope of getting a slightly bigger fit, more like 12+ months.

MODS:

1. I’ve been frustrated in the past with a Debbie Bliss pattern because sometimes it talks in measurements (length) and sometimes in row numbers, and this inconsistency was the case here too. She talks of knitting a certain number of rows before starting armhole shaping, which is very frustrating because even if width gauge is correct, row gauge isn’t necessarily and this can play havoc with the resulting garment if you just go by the pattern instructions. I wanted my shrug to fit a baby about 12-18 months and made the height to armhole shaping 10cm, which using my DK (22sts gauge) yarn was 26 rows.

2. PUFF SLEEVES I like the elbow length sleeves in the pattern but for a springtime/summer cardi I wanted short sleeves. Simply making the sleeves as is, but shorter, would in my opinion not look right so I aimed for slightly puffed sleeves. Quite a bit of trial and error; this is how I ended up doing it, maybe not perfect but it worked:

Smaller needles - Cast on 38sts. Knit 3 rows. (I made my first worked row the WRONG side… the cast-on looked better that way.)

Change to larger needles, knit 1 row.

Increase row 1 (purl row): P6, (Pfb, P2) 3 times, (Pfb, P1) 5 times, (Pfb, P2) twice, Pfb, P6 49sts

Knit 1 row.

Increase row 2 (purl row): P3, (Pfb, P2) to last 4sts, Pfb, P3 64sts

Work 4 more rows stocking stitch, ending with a purl row. Continue armhole cast-off and shaping as per pattern -

Cast off 3(3:3:3:4) sts at beg of next 2 rows. Dec one st at each end of the next and 3(3:3:3:4) foll alt rows.

…. which will leave you with 50 stitches.

The pattern would have you cast off here, but I wanted a little more sleeve on the top so I cast off 8sts at beginning and end of next knit row. 34sts
(I should have done a corresponding shaping on the fronts and backs armhole area, and will next time.)

Cast off whilst working the pattern of K2, (K2tog, K1) to last 2 stitches, K2.

3 SHORTER TIES

Left front
Cast on 77sts (rather than 99). Follow the pattern as is:

Next row K to last 3 sts, m1, k3. Next row K3, p to end. Rep the last 2 rows 2(3:4:5:6) times more.

… and for my size 9-12m I now had 81sts.

Start shaping:
Instead of the pattern’s instruction of:

K to last 32(37:42:47:56) sts, turn and leave these sts on a holder.

… I did K to last 15sts, turn and leave these sts on a holder as this is the section that determines the length of the ties.

Continue shaping according to pattern from here on. Remember to do similar changes for the right front.