Geometric Dazzle Children’s Cardigan

This cardigan pattern stole my heart at the LIBRARY of all places! I first saw this design on a trip to the library with my daughter, Nala. I saw so many other beautiful designs in this book by Kathleen Taylor. This pattern was really the one that made me actually buy the book! I have since returned the library version and now have my own version and it is wonderful! There’s a lot of patterns that I actually wanna make as gifts for loved ones but I started with my daughter first, of course.

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The book I used is Fearless Fair Isle Knitting by Kathleen Taylor. This pattern is called Geometric Dazzle Children’s Cardigan. This pattern could easily be worked in maybe one or two colors and still be just as stunning or maybe even three colors. But, when I do a color work project, I like to have as many colors as I possibly can have! I used Knit Picks Swish yarn for this project. I used Crush (Hot Pink), Dublin (Deep Green), Peapod (Light Green), Haystack Heather (Gold), Eggplant (Deep Purple), and White. Swish yarn is actually my new favorite discovery! I did not think that I was going to love this yarn as much as I do! I love the colors that they offer and I really like the feel of this yarn. I really liked it when I was knitting with it and I loved how soft and fluffy it was even after washing it in the machine. I think KP Swish is a great weight for stranded colorwork. I think this is a cardigan that could be able to worn for years.

I chose to knit up a size 4 for Nala. She was directly in between size 2 and 4 that Kathleen drafted. So, I decided to go up a size so that she would be able to wear this for longer! Hopefully through to the spring 🤦🏽‍♀️

I had such an easy time working this up. I didn’t find any issues within the writing at all. I basically had a blast making this! It only took me 10 days to knit this project up. And I consider that to be pretty quick! There are steeks in this pattern. I’m a fan! There’s a zipper in this project. A knitting first but I’m very confident with zippers so I didn’t find any issues there. I’ve never done an arm hole steek before so that was a first too and I pleasantly enjoyed it! I do feel like, with her jacket, just being so small that I would maybe want to do smaller steeks maybe with 6 stitches instead of 10.

But I was very happily surprised by the sleeves in this pattern! The book talks about tandem knitting for sleeves. It is so genius and I want to make all of my colorwork sleeves this way and maybe even regular knitted sleeves this way! I do love the method but like I said, I feel like the steeks were a little bit bulky with 10 stitches so maybe 6 stitches would be better for me so that I can reduce some of the bulk that I got on those seams. This pattern was so pleasant, I really look forward to working other patterns in this design book and report back to you again.

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I had a poll up on Instagram and Facebook to decide on which zipper color I should use with this cardigan. I narrowed down my option to white, green or a purple zipper. It was overwhelmingly GREEN in the responses! Even my husband picked green lol So I added the green zipper and it’s looks so beautiful!

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Here is my Knitting Diary for this project:

08-24-2021: I picked up 70 stitches for the front band. This whipped up as quickly as I wanted it to!! I used mattress stitch for the shoulder seams after I cut the steeks open. I used a damp towel to steam block the body before machine reinforcing the steeks. I’m very happy with my tension! I don’t know how using 16”circs will go for the sleeves but I’m going to work the sleeves in tandem as Kathleen suggests! I’m very excited to work them two at a time without magic loop! I hope they knit up just as quickly and I think I might set them into place on my sewing machine because I would prefer not to hand sew them in place. I will be adding the other front band and neckband tomorrow. Hopefully I can get to the sleeves too!

08-28-2021: I have finished assembling the cardigan. I just need to whip stitch the arm steek and sleeve steek. I hope to hand wash it tonight and let it dry for the rest of the weekend. I will apply the zipper on Monday!!! She loves it so much already.