Hand Knitted Cardigan

a hand knitted cardigan

Hi Everyone, 

I wanted to share my latest project with you. 

A little hand knitted cardigan. I am by no means an advanced knitter, and have only previously made some scarves like this or this.

This is the first time I followed a pattern, I found  this free pattern from Lion brand.

The wool was I used  was only 49%wool and 51%acrylic not great, but I really picked it for the colour and I think I choose right.But by the time I reached the parts to put everything on "holders", I decided I probably couldn't finish it properly, so I had re-think and adapt. 

I cast on 117 stitches on circular needles (size 6), 

The bottom 5 rows were knit 2 purl 2, and the beginning and last 5 stitches were all purled.

Then I knit all the way until it measured 18.5 cm 

So when I got to the Armholes, and because I wasn't putting it on holders, I did the following:

Knit 24, Bind 14, Knit 46, Bind 14, Knit 24

For the next row, I knitted until I got to the part that was binded off, 

I  cast on an additional 24 stitches for each armhole

So it becomes, knit 24, cast on 24, continue knitting 46, cast on 24 and knit 24

(i hope this is not confusing you!)

Next, I tried out this pattern for the yolk which I found here

It's called a garter eyelet stitch, and it goes like this: 

Rows 1 - 4: Knit

Row 5: *Knit 2 together, Yarn Over, repeat till end 

Row 6: Knit. 

The rest was a bit of guess work. 

Knit every four rows and decrease evenly, (I found this site useful)

it was 144 stitches and I decreased 22, 16 and 12 stitches every 4 rows.

The final collar is 88 stitches all around 

  I actually made 2 button holes, but unfortunately I did not space them out equally enough 

so therefore I only sewed on one button. 

Even though I was not able to follow the original pattern all the way through till the end, 

I feel like I learnt a lot in the process. 

Knitting is so different to sewing, do those of you that do both also think so? 

I like it and am happy with the result, (i'm really glad it fits!!) but it definitely requires a lot more patience and challenged me in many different ways.

So I wanted to share it with you all, and just let you know that it's possible to try something new even if you have o experience in it! 

Thanks for reading the really long post!

Love