It’s been a long time coming but I have finally released the pattern for my Daisied cardigan.
Daisied is a yoked cardigan featuring an all-over daisy motif, balloon sleeves and a seamless bottom-up construction. Body and sleeves are knit in the round separately before being joined at the underarm to work the yoke. The cardigan is then steeked to create the front opening. The button band is knit in one continuous piece comprising each side of the front opening and the neckline ribbing.
The sample is knitted in Organic Summer Wool by CaMaRose. As Daisied feels quite summery it seemed only natural to use a yarn suited to the season. With its 30% cotton 70% wool content, the Organic Summer Wool fits the bill perfectly. This yarn is also quite sticky which makes it a great option for colourwork. And with 25 colours to choose from, the possibilities are endless. The Jamieson & Smith 2ply Jumper Weight would also work well with that pattern and make the garment a little bit warmer.
Designing Daisied has taught me one thing or two about patience. I thought I’d whip up this pattern in no time but things didn’t play out quite as planned… My gauge got looser as I progressed and all my initial calculations got out of whack. At the result I had to frog and re-knit one of the sleeves, the yoke and shorten the body. By the time I realised I had to make all these changes I got pretty disheartened and put it aside for a while.
Daisied is knitted from the bottom up so shortening the body was a bit more complicated than unravelling a few rows. I had to cut the ribbed hem, remove an entire repeat of the stranded motif and graft the hem to the body using the Kitchener stitch technique. I used life lines to make sure it wouldn’t unravel any further than required. Seeing it in pieces was slightly nerve racking but in a way this was a great warm up for the steek! After that cutting the front opening felt like a walk in the park
Following Tin Can Knit’s updated tutorial I picked up and knitted the button band before cutting the fabric. By doing so, the only thing left to do after cutting is to sew the flaps of the steek to the inside of the cardigan. There are pro and cons to this method. It makes the steek more stable so when you cut the fabric the chance of it unravelling are pretty much non-existent. On the other hand it makes picking up the stitches more fiddly as you’re not doing it along an open edge. I didn’t mind it too much but I can see why some people might find it troublesome.
Since this tension mishap, I’ve been checking the gauge of my finished projects against their swatches and I found out that my tension systematically loosen up. It’s probably something to do with knitting on a bigger scale. By accounting for that difference I am now able to predict the measurements of my knitting much more accurately.
Despite the emotional roller coaster I am glad I made these changes as they really improved the fit. There was a point I was really annoyed at myself and I even wondered if I could be bothered finishing it. In the end my perseverance paid off and it has now become one of my favourite things to wear. What they say is true, sometimes you just can’t rush the process 💛
I am now working on a new floral piece for Autumn, this time it will be a vest and I’ll be using Jamieson & Smith.
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Please consider selling it other than Ravelry considering their incredibly insensitive response to people with accessibility issues. There’s love knits and shopify as alternatives. Love the design but won’t buy on Ravelry now.
Hey Kate, I am actually in the process of adding my patterns to Etsy. Once that’s donce, I will be adding them to Love Crafts too.