$7.00

How to Buy

How to Buy

Child's Loon Cardigan

PATTERN DETAILS

RELEASE DATE:  January 2005. 

DESCRIPTION:  This child’s cardigan sweater has a variety of black and white patterns inspired by those of the Common Loon, a lake bird whose form and haunting cry are loved by many as symbols of wildness. The loon effect is enhanced by the sweater’s red buttons, which are the color of the adult loon’s eyes.  The color patterns are worked in a combination of intarsia and stranded color work. The front, neckline, and sleeves are edged with garter stitch. Buttonholes are in both right and left button bands – just close the unneeded holes as you sew the buttons over them on the desired side (for boy or girl). The bottom edging is worked in 2-color corrugated ribbing. The sweater pieces are knitted downward from the shoulders to the wrists & bottom ribbing.

If you are interested, check out the Loon Pillow with Toy which was designed to coordinate with this cardigan.

SIZE:  The sweater is designed to fit child sizes 2 (4, 6, 8, 10). The directions are written for the smallest size with the larger sizes in parentheses. The sweater has a finished chest size of approximately 26 (28, 30, 32, 34) inches or 66 (71, 76, 81.5, 86.5) cm.

SKILL REQUIRED:  Adventurous intermediate. You need to know how to knit back and forth, knit circularly on double-point needles, and knit stranded and intarsia 2-color rows.

MATERIALS:

• YARN:  DK or sportweight yarn that knits a suitable fabric at a gauge of 6 stitches per inch. Of white you will need approximately 250 (280, 350, 470, 500) yards or 230 (260, 320, 430, 460) m. Of black you will need approximately 460 (520, 680, 870, 1000) yards or 420 (480, 630, 800, 920) m. Note that the proportion of black compared to white will increase with each size, since the length of the solid black portion of the body increases with each larger size. The sweater in the photo is made with America’s Alpaca Classic Alpaca yarn in black and a natural cream.

• NEEDLES:  US Size 4 (3.5 mm) or size to achieve gauge and US Size 2 or 2 sizes smaller than the larger size needed to achieve gauge. For the larger size needle you’ll need 1) long straight or circular needles (24 inches/61 cm would be good for a circular needle length) and 2) a set of double-point needles. You’ll need both types of needles in the smaller size, too.

• MISCELLANEOUS:

  • Darning needle

  • 2 long stitch holders (waste yarn will work)

  • Stitch marker

  • 6 (7,8,9,10) buttons about 7/16 inches (1.1 cm) in diameter

  • Black sewing thread and needle to match.

GAUGE:  Approximately 24 stitches per 4 inches (10 cm) in stockinette stitch on the larger size needles. The row gauge is approximately 32 rows per 4 inches (10 cm) in stockinette stitch on the larger size needles, but is not as critical as the stitch gauge. Note, it may be difficult to achieve the same gauge on the stranded work of the sleeves as for the body, but work the sleeves loosely so that you can block them to shape.

back of sweater

sweater shown with

Loon Pillow with Toy (pattern available for purchase on this site)

How to Buy Pattern