Knitting really has been a bit of a saviour this past 10 months. It’s kept my fingers and brain occupied through some crazy times! One of my favourite yarns to knit with at the moment are super bulky/ chunky yarns – the speed at which this stuff knits up is just pure joy! My relatively recent discovery of knitting pattern designer Good Night, Day has only encouraged this as the minimalist patterns seem to call to me!

My most recent knit is the Perth cardigan, or at least an approximation of it. I got this pattern as part of a Good Night, Day e-book I bought on Ravelry. It’s a simple (as all the patterns are) raglan sleeved cardigan knitted top down.

This project didn’t start out life as this cardi though! I had originally started knitting up the Carlisle cardigan, another of the patterns from the e-book. This pattern is essentially the same except that it featured a garter stitch design over the upper section. After finishing up the body and a whole sleeve, I decided to frog the thing! I felt the garter stitch was a bit too voluminous over my shoulders and added bulk in a way that I wasn’t happy with. As frustrating as it was, I knew I’d rather undo it and make something that I’d actually wear!

The Yarn

The yarn I used was from Wool and the Gang – it’s their Crazy, Sexy Wool in cinnamon dust which I’m afraid can’t seem to be bought any longer. I managed to snag 4 balls of it which I hoped was enough to complete my make! Unfortunately I didn’t realise until I was almost done that I was coming up just short! I’d wanted the sleeve and body to be a little longer than the stated pattern and hadn’t quite taken into account how much more yarn I needed. I couldn’t find any more of the cinnamon dust yarn so I resorted to added a colour blocked section to the bottom of each sleeve. For this I used a light pink chunky wool yarn I had in my stash from Stitch and Story.

The Pattern

I knitted the Large size and sized up further by adding 4 extra stitches which were divided up to add 2 extra to the back and 1 to each of the left and right fronts. This gave me that little bit of extra width across the front. I used a twisted rob stitch instead of a normal rib for the neck and hems just as a personal choice as I prefer this look. I

added a chunky cable pattern to the sleeves as well. Using the centre of the sleeve as a guide I made two opposing cables and repeated this three times down the length of the sleeve.

Not a traditional cable by any means but it adds some interest to the sleeve! I made another change to the pattern by decreasing the stitches at the end of the sleeve before knitting the cuff to create more of a puffed look. I lengthened the sleeve and body a little more than the suggested lengths to be more full length.

I knitted this using 15mm circular needles (not joining the work) for the body and sleeve and 10mm needles for the hem, cuffs and neck. I think it knitted up pretty true to size.

I wanted it to have almost a slouchy bomber jacket appearance which I think I achieved here. It’s warm and snuggly and a great wardrobe addition!