Introducing the Charlotte Cardigan

I have created this new garter stitch cardigan pattern (EDIT: First published on 19th May 2017) after having lots of requests from the lovely knitters that visit the studio. I had had loads of love for the Fiona Cardigan, as well as the Fiona Jumper and the Philippa Jumper. All of theses designs grew from my love of garter stitch, a classic shape and a good crew neck.

However I also love a v-neck and this love is shared by other knitters too, so this is what led me to design the Charlotte Cardigan.

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It’s the pattern of endless possibilities!

Love the length of the cardigan but want shorter sleeves? Simple to do..
The Charlotte Cardigan has sleeves that are knitted as full length, whereas the sleeves on both the Fiona Cardigan and Fiona Jumper are three quarter length. The sleeves on the Charlotte Cardigan can also be three quarters but I wanted to show you how easy it is to adapt my patterns to your perfect sleeve length.

Some knitters will say, “Oh I love this cardigan but I’d prefer long sleeves” or, as is the case at the moment, shorter sleeves. I say That’s OK, you can easily knit the sleeves to the length you want and some knitters look at me like I’ve just told them to walk in front of a bus! And so for those new to knitting or who have never knitted one of my simple patterns before, I thought I’d show you how easy it is to knit my sleeves longer by doing this on the Charlotte Cardigan.

Love the length of the sleeves but want a cropped cardigan? Easy to change..
It’s the same with overall length of the garment, this cardigan shows you how easy it is to adapt one of my patterns to your perfect length. I knitted this one longer, but it’s easy to knit it shorter too! There isn’t any shaping at the bottom of the cardigan, it looks like it does in the picture but that is the beauty of a simple stitch, simple pattern and simple placement of a button.

This is the beauty of knitting your own cardigan, it’s about making it unique to you. Not all patterns are the same and some other patterns might require more thought, but the majority of the ones I design I do so with you, the individual knitter, in mind.

It can seem scary if you haven’t done it before but…
I’m here to help. A hand knit is all about getting it perfect for you. This can take a bit of time to plan and organise and for really adventurous knitters there may be a bit of ripping out.

When I teach my Professional Finishing class I always say that a good knitter is a knitter who pulls back. Everyone makes mistakes, no matter how long you’ve been knitting, there is a moment when you knit the wrong stitch or forget to increase or decrease on the right row repeat.

I design simple patterns – I do the hard work so it’s easy for you..
It seems that my ‘favourite’ thing to do at my Yarnaholics evening group is to knit the same stitches the person I am talking to! I take garter stitch to knit with mostly as I find they are easy to knit but I can find myself purling a few stitches if the person I am talking to is purling!  But any time spent knitting is never time wasted.

So this is how I approach all my projects, and as a designer, re-knitting is what happens on almost every project! However this doesn’t have to happen for you as I’ve done most of the hard work when I was designing the pattern so you can just sit back and relax with my pattern to get a v-neck cardigan that is perfect for you.

And because I’ve had these experiences (made the mistakes or as I say there are never any mistakes it’s just not the way you wanted it), I can help you if you have any questions.

My favourite technique at the moment is colour blocking (below is how I’m colour blocking my Fiona Jumper) – this is when you knit parts of the cardigan in different colours. I am having lots of fun helping knitters pick shades to knit with, whether that is just two shades or three or four or even more!

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Article by Jane