Knitting a “Boyfriend Cardigan” – Planning stage

      6 Comments on Knitting a “Boyfriend Cardigan” – Planning stage

So after Swatching a piece for Nikki’s red lounge blanket I decided the the random wool I have pulled out of the wool chest worked really well in the seed stitch that I have been using and really wanted to make a cardigan out of it.

I made myself wait until I had finished some other projects but once I had cast off my cropped jumper (which I am still not very happy with) and added heels to my Oatmeal Socks I had freed up my knitting list with just the last few bits needing to be done to my Riddari and my ongoing project of a Wedding shawl on my WIP list on Ravelry.

I will admit that my Seamfoam Cables blanket is on the WIP list because I started a listing for it so I could log the swatch that I did but I haven’t started it yet as the needles that I would want for it are Nikki’s ones that she’s using – so I either have to wait for her to finish or order myself a set of chunky interchangables (or add them to my Christmas list and put the blanket off till post Christmas knitting!)

So in my mind this gave me free rein to pull out the giant ball of wool and find myself a cardigan pattern that I liked. This was harder than I thought it would be. I had a all over seed stitch pattern in my mind and couldn’t pull myself away from that idea although a few patterns did try.

Oxford Boyfriend cardigan

This Oxford cardigan for instance kept catching my eye – and subsequently keeps popping up on my Pinterest feed! – but this is knit in bulky wool and needs two colours to really work.

If my cropped jumper really doesn’t work I might rip it out for the third time and re knit it into this jumper with some white or grey from my stash ( I *might* have that wool in 4 different colours!)

Cable Sweater Coat
Empathy Cardigan

Both of these patterns I came across were too busy for what I wanted really. They would have required a lot more time to knit as the patterns were a lot more complex and although I loved them they were not what I had in mind.
Not to mention the fact that neither the patterns would be easy to get my hands on, the first is a printed pattern that is now out of print and the second the website for artesano yarns is no longer live. 🙁

But the Way Back Machine comes out on top here and it is possible to get a copy of that pattern

At some point the Shapely Boyfriend Cardigan caught my eye and I kept coming back to it as i delved further into ravelrys advanced search.

After having a look at the actual pattern on Knitty.com I decided to try this pattern as it seemed like such a good blank slate of a pattern that if this did work then I would have a good raglan cardigan pattern to work from in future.

Shapely Boyfriend

I even went as far as to measure my pre knitted swatch and I had pretty much the same stitch count although my row count was a bit off I decided to risk it anyway and just go for it.

If anyone wants to follow my progress you can find my Ravelry entry for it here. I will try and keep it updated with what I am doing so that I can keep track of any changes I do. And feel free to add me on Ravelry if you wish.

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6 thoughts on “Knitting a “Boyfriend Cardigan” – Planning stage

  1. tialys

    I do love a boyfriend cardigan! I finished knitting my second one in the spring but put the sewing up bit off when it got too hot to knit and it is lurking in a basket somewhere waiting for me when the nights draw in a bit. Why don’t you like your cropped cardigan? I’ve had disappointments with those too.

    Reply
    1. Pippa Post author

      Oh yeah I can’t wait to see yours when its finished. Thankfully this version doesn’t need seaming up but I am worrying slightly that it wont be as robust as it would have been if I have knit the bits separately. Oh well only time will tell.

      I’m not 100% sure about the cropped cardigan tbh, I think the wool was a bit too chunky so that the fabric it created didn’t sit how I was expecting it to. I also think that I made the waist band a bit too big so it doesn’t have quite the right proportions. Although as it has cropped sleeves too I have found it quite useful when cooking as I don’t have to worry about pulling my sleeves up the whole time.

      Reply
  2. Dartmoor Yarns

    Cardigan’s come in such a huge range of widths and still look good, so i’m shore your slight off count will be good and anyway almost always impossible to match row counts as well as stitch counts. Love that yarn – as i said before, perfect for moss stitch 🙂 Look forward to seeing your progress 🙂

    Reply
    1. Pippa Post author

      Thank you, I’m sure the counts shouldn’t be too much of a problem. TBH I changed needle size down one after a few rows just to make sure that the fabric it was creating was not too loose.

      I am just about to pick up for the sleeves so it is knitting up nice and quickly 🙂

      Reply
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