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The Summer Chic Cardigan is a free pattern by DROPS Design. I love wearing a loose cardigan over a sleeveless top or dress in summer. I’m also in love with linen (as demonstrated here and here)!
The pattern was from the January 2015 collection 160, which includes several beautiful summer knitting patterns. I’ve included many of these in my Ravelry queue!
The instructions are to knit the body flat, from the bottom up. Then, the sleeves are knit in the round. The instructions are for a cardigan that buttons up the back, but I think I might wear this buttoned up the front. A lot of knitters have also knit this as a tee in the round. This would make things go faster as I generally knit faster than I purl. Every second row is a purl row. The cardigan has a lace back, stockinette panels under the arms, and lace panels by the cardigan opening. The instructions are to knit the buttonband as a garter stitch edge right on the one-piece pattern. This means you don’t need to pick up stitches once you finish knitting the body!
The pattern includes six sizes, from a bust of 88 cm / 34.5″ to 138 cm / 54.25″. As the lace is stretchy, I made the 104 cm / 41″ size. I used 3.25 skeins of Rowan Creative Linen in Teal. Furthermore, as I am a rather loose knitter, I used 2.5 mm and 3.0 mm needles to get gauge. Cotton knits tend to grow!
I found that the format of the included chart, although using familiar stitches, confused me. I then rewrote the lace chart using more familiar notations and symbols. The chart includes three sections of lace, denoted as A, B, and C. The order for knitting the cardigan was difficult to remember so I ended up writing it out. It is as follows:
garter stitch buttonband – A – C – stockinette – A – B (repeated 4 times for me) – C – stockinette – A – C – garter stitch buttonband
To keep everything in order, I used stitch markers to denote the different sections of lace and the lace repeats. Once I established my system, I found I made far fewer errors!
The free pattern for the Summer Chic Cardigan is available on Ravelry here.
You can access my re-written charts below. I find it easier to follow if I print them out and highlight the separate A, B, and C sections in the charts.
AC charts:
ABC chart:
I love how versatile that cardigan is! The pattern is so pretty too!
http://www.chezmireillefashiontravelmom.com
hi dear, I absolutly love it! this summer top is saying to me, knit me, so sad I can´t at the moment but definily I will save it for the next free minute I have, Im on vacation right now but as soon I return home I will write this on my -list to do- hope will be real soon!
keep with the great work!
Lilia Vanini / Liliacraftparty
The pattern is stunning, and I love the fact that you can use it backwards too. Thank you for sharing at The Really Crafty Link Party. Pinned.
So pretty! Love the delicate pattern.
What a pretty knit cardigan! Love that you can wear it both back and front. Lovely color too! Pinned 🙂
What a beautiful pattern, makes me want to learn to knit. Very creative!
Such a pretty sweater – love the stitch! Thank you for sharing at Party In Your PJ’s!
This is gorgeous! Thank you for sharing on Farm Fresh Tuesdays! Hope to see your posts again this week!
Thank you so much for sharing your version of this gorgeous pattern, been tearing my hair out, but this is the symbolism I’m used to.
I’m glad it helped! I was sure I wasn’t the only one who would struggle with the DROPS symbols 🙂