Alina

Fog. Textured Cardigan Pattern.

Happy Monday, friends! Today I am happy to announce the release of my Fog cardigan pattern that’s been in the making for so many months. Sometimes simplicity takes more time to put into life than more elaborate patterns. I just really wanted to get this cardigan right – my goal was to make something that “flows” on your needles. I wanted simple stitches, straightforward construction and texture details.

I always loved the effect of slip stitches against the reverse stockinette stitch fabric, so I played around with their different placement, visually breaking down the fabric into pieces. The abrupt transition from the reverse stockinette to the ribbing creates the extra volume between the sleeve itself and its cuff. I used the natural tendency of the stockinette stitch fabric to curl in, leaving the edges of the front bands trimmed with a simple i-cord edge that is worked simultaneously along with the body. This created the extra volume and contrast between purl and knit sides.

I can’t wait for you to see the pieces created by my amazing test knitters – all of them are so beautiful!

I hope you will be inspired to have Fog on your needles this Fall!

General Pattern Information

CONSTRUCTION

Fog Cardigan is a top-down seamless cardigan with the neckband knit simultaneously with the main body of the garment. The yoke is shaped as a compound raglan, which creates a natural line that runs from the neck to the base of the armhole. Yoke instructions are written step-by-step for each size individually. Stitches for the sleeves are placed on hold at the end of the yoke, then the main body is continued to the hem. The main body is “framed” with i-cord that is knit simultaneously with the main body and then meets with the i-cord bind off at the hem. Then sleeve stitched are picked up and worked top down in the round.

DESIGN DETAILS

Texture

The texture is created with the help of simple slipped stitches and the contrast between knit and purl stitches.

Sleeves

Sleeves are knit in the round top down, finishing with the high 1×1 rib cuff.

Neckband

The neckband is worked simultaneously with the body, reverse stockinette fabric naturally curves, creating the contrast between purl and knit sides.

Sizing

The sweater is graded for 9 sizes with approximately 11-14″ of ease. The sample is shown in size 2 with 11″ of ease.

B O D Y S I Z E S:

Size 1 31″ [78.5 cm]

Size 2 34″ [86.5 cm]

Size 3 37″ [94 cm]

Size 4 40” [101.5 cm]

Size 5 43″ [109 cm]

Size 6 46″ [116.5 cm]

Size 7 50″ [127 cm]

Size 8 54″ [132 cm]

Size 9 60″ [152.5 cm]

F I N I S H E D M E A S U R E M E N T S:

Chest/Bust at Underarm: 42 (45, 48 ¾, 52 ¼, 55 ¾, 59, 62, 66, 70)” [106.5 (114.5, 124, 132.5, 141.5, 150, 157.5, 167.5, 178) cm]

Upper arm circumference: 10 ¾ (11 ½, 12 ½, 13, 14 ¾, 16, 17 ¼, 18 ¼, 20)” [27.5 (29, 32, 33, 37.5, 40.5, 44, 46, 51) cm]

Intended ease 11-14″ (28-35.5 cm)

Shown in size S with 11″ of ease

G A U G E

18 sts & 24 rows = 4″ [10 cm] in Stockinette stitch.

Y A R N

6 (6, 7, 7, 7, 8, 8, 8, 9) skeins of Father by YOTH Yarns, 100% Rambouillet wool. Worsted weight (220 yds/100g). Shown in color Sea Salt.

List of techniques used:

I-cord edge – written instructions and link to the photo tutorial are provided.

Picking up sts – photo tutorial is provided

Slip sts

The pattern has been edited by a professional technical editor and test knitted.

Fog cardigan pattern is available for $7.

BUY NOW

I am running 15% discount to celebrate Fog’s release. The discount is applied automatically once you add the pattern to the cart.

Thank you for your support! Have a wonderful start of the week!

Amber. Textured Sweater Pattern.

Textured Sweater Knitting Pattern. The Gift Of Knitting.

Polar Bear. Textured Sweater Pattern.

Wings Textured Sweater Knitting Pattern. The Gift Of Knitting

Wings. Textured Sweater Pattern.

By Alina| 2019-09-09T06:33:12+00:00 September 9th, 2019|Pattern|5 Comments

Moments 33/19

My Moments this week consisted of hard word, long walks, discovering new places and flavors and knitting in between all of that. I love how my sweaters become “tags” in my life, each one is associated with places, events, people, flavors. It is better than any photo album for me.

This week, while working on a new knit, I discovered a cozy vegan cafe in my neighborhood, where you can see love in every single detail. I used to be vegan myself in my early twenties, but to be honest it didn’t work for me, the biggest reason for it being that I am completely inadequate in the kitchen and I lack any kind of food related imagination. But this place blew my mind with all their original and oh so delicious recipes. Oatmeal cooked with coconut milk with coconut flakes, banana, berries and almond butter; unsweetened matcha with chocolate all natural energy ball, various acai bowls, smoothies and so on. Now it is one of my favorite breakfast places, it opens early, so I can have my blissful hour here before heading to the office.

I hope you had a great week!

RELATED POSTS

Moments 32/19

Moments 30/19

Moments 27/19

By Alina| 2019-08-18T08:28:33+00:00 August 18th, 2019|Moments|3 Comments

Birthday Sell! Happy 5th Anniversary, The Gift Of Knitting!

5 years ago, on August 14th, 2014, I published my first blog post – Thank you. And each year I come back to these words to thank my close ones who support me, myself for starting this space and giving myself one of the best gifts ever and you, for being here, reading it, commenting and knitting my patterns. The Gift Of Knitting has been with me through highs and lows, and no matter how hectic my life was, I’d always come back to it, sooner or later. It got me through some tough times, when I had a chance to just get lost in knitting, taking photos and writing.

I am running a traditional anniversary sale in my Ravelry store right now – all patterns are 5 usd (or 29% off), one for each year 🙂 No code needed – the price will go down to 5 usd automatically when you add the pattern to the cart.

As always, I will be happy to see my patterns on your needles!

Thank you for your support!

By Alina| 2019-08-14T05:57:44+00:00 August 14th, 2019|Uncategorized|2 Comments

Moments 32/19

This week was generous to me with these beautiful moments on the secluded rocky beach, pink sunset light, salt in my hair, sand under my feet and feeling blessed to be living close to such gorgeous places. It will never cease to amaze me how lucky I am to call this place a home.

My knitting moments were scarce, unfortunately. It’s been a busy week at work and the only thing that I had energy for is to go to bed early, read a little bit and sleep. But nonetheless, this sweater is growing on my needles in a pretty steady pace. Daughter by YOTH yarns is such a joy to knit with, I am looking forward to seeing how it will open up after blocking!

Have a wonderful day full of beautiful moments today!

RELATED POSTS

Moments 30/19

Moments 27/19

Moments 25/19

By Alina| 2019-08-11T07:54:05+00:00 August 11th, 2019|Moments|2 Comments

Just a Sweater

This new sweater that came off my needles last month was an absolute selfish project. I was burning out at work and wanted to just feel the stitches forming in my hands, without planning, without following any instructions, plain straightforward knitting. You know that I am not a big color knitter, but these earthly shades have been fascinating me since March 2017 – you can read the yarn review here – Earthly Shades. If you remember those are leftovers from projects for my book – Add One Stitch Knitting, and I knew I wanted to put them to use, they are just too good not to be turned into something wearable. Yarn was so easy and fast to work with, exactly what I needed.

The only plan I had before casting on is to create wide stripes, I love how they look, it is easier to switch between the stripes and there are not that many threads to be weaved in after you are done. Plus it gave me a better idea how much yarn each stripe was consuming, so I wouldn’t have to play the yarn chicken game at the end.

The sweater has an oversize fit, and is knit using a simple top down yoke construction. I absolutely love this green shade, so I moved it closer to my face, because I know this color works great with my eyes, the rest was just improvisation. The idea to throw in a blue shade was out of necessity as I realized I wouldn’t make it with the pink yarn. I LOVE how it turned out.

My favorite detail that only knitters will notice is the contrasting chain running along the neckline that mirrors the color of the sleeves and the hem ribbing. I killed two birds here – trimmed the neckline and added a contrast. You can find a step-by-step tutorial of this technique here – How To Trim a Neckline In Sweaters. After trimming I finished it with a 2 st i-cord.

That was a great therapy knitting project that reminded me how much I love what I do and how important it is to me to keep doing that no matter how busy my life gets. Amazing what “just a sweater” can do.

Have a wonderful day today! And keep doing what you love and love what you are doing!

RELATED POSTS

Amber Sweater

Textured Cable Sweater Knitting Pattern. The Gift Of Knitting.

Grey Edge. Textured Sweater.

Cable Textured Sweater. The Gift Of Knitting for We Are Knitters

The Edge Sweater. FO Details.

By Alina| 2019-08-08T07:10:23+00:00 August 8th, 2019|Uncategorized|10 Comments

Gold and Chocolate

Lately I was thinking how my attitude to knitting has evolved. When I just picked up the needles in my early twenties, I envisioned all these crazy designs in my head that I would cast on almost instantly. The result – so many disasters and unfinished projects. Now I “brew” my ideas, yes, I do cast on swatches and make the notes, but I do not rush into a project anymore, it takes time, a lot of time, maybe making me one of the least productive knitwear pattern writers out there, but I embraced my way of working and do not push it to make something just for the sake of making/publishing it. As a result I stopped “killing” my ideas, like literally nothing that I cast on lately has been frogged. Yes, I rip back and start all over again, I twitch things here and there, but the core idea doesn’t change.

I am working on a sweater right now that I swatched for back in April, all this time I was coming back to the swatch, looking at it, imagining it in a finished knitwear form; it definitely passed the test – I love how it is coming along, especially in this dark chocolate shade.

I also finished setting up my knitting machine and swatching right now with this “golden” cotton. It is not as easy as I thought it would be – my machine is getting old and it’s been stored away for so much time that its parts are starting failing on me. I hope I can recover it with oiling it, but maybe I would have to face a fact that it is time to let it go… Anyway, not giving up on it yet!