**UPDATE! A LIST OF COMMON MODIFICATIONS TO THE FEBRUARY LADY SWEATER PATTERN IS NOW AVAILABLE HERE.**
As soon as I finished knitting Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Baby Sweater on Two Needles (more commonly known as the “February Baby Sweater”) for my niece, I thought, “I need that sweater.” Not for any other babies I know (and I seem to know an awful lot these days), but for me me me.(If you don’t already own Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac, you should. It’s the best $7 you will ever spend on a knitting book. For reals.)
. It’s the best $7 you will ever spend on a knitting book. For reals.)Jenny was steps ahead of me, and had already made her own “giant” version, in baby pink. But I wondered if there was a way to make it more fitted on top, so the whole thing had a kind of 50s a-line shape to it. Enter the top-down raglan cardigan—the easiest sweater structure known to knitterkind.
I started with basic raglan shaping for the collar and yoke, then stuck in a row of eyelet increases just above the bust to add fullness all the way around. (I may still make an icord with pom-poms on the ends, and thread it through the eyelets, like so.)
And ended up with my new favorite sweater.
yarn: Sundara Worsted Merino in Green Over Ochre
needles: 5mm circular
buttons: 7/8″ wooden
Want to make your own? Sweet! I wrote up a free pattern.
YARN: approximately 750 (850, 950, 1050, 1150) yards of worsted weight yarn. This lace pattern is especially lovely in semi-solid yarns—I used Sundara Worsted Merino in “Green Over Ochre.”
NEEDLES:
• US 8 (5mm) 32” circular needle, or size needed to get gauge
• US 8 (5mm) double-pointed needles, or size needed to get gauge
GAUGE: 18 stitches / 4” in garter stitch
FINISHED BUST SIZE: 35 (37.5, 41, 41, 44, 49.5, 52.5) inches (bust is the same for S and M, but sleeves are 1.75” larger on size M)
A note on sizing: You can easily make this cardigan smaller or larger by casting on fewer or more stitches at the beginning, and/or doing fewer or more raglan increases—just be sure that your final stitch counts for the sleeves and body are a multiple of 7 so that the stitch pattern works.
My raglan math (such as it is) owes a great debt to Barbara Walker’s Knitting From the Top, and to Laura’s fabulous (and free!) “Easy and Top Down” pattern.
All mistakes are, of course, my own—bring them to my attention at flintknits@gmail.com.
