I had 3 skeins of this wonderfully colorful DK yarn I got at Stitches West from Zen Yarn Garden (color way OOAK in Serenity DK) and thought to make an attempt at a basic short sleeve cardigan. I hunted around for awhile and after reading reviews from makers, wanting something that was a basic repeat and could be customized fairy easily in case I needed to adjust the sizing. After a bit of debate I settled on this Chevron Lace Cardigan by milobo for a few reasons. 1 – it is worked from top down with (after a slight mod) no cutting/joining any panels, 2 – it’s a basic chevron repeat which can be easily modified from the start to the size that you want and 3 – it was not too lace-y or thick with the yarn I wanted to use.
Admittedly I am not one to like doing gauge swatches, but for this I thought I would do one, so I did, and after 30 rows, realized it was too short on the front panels and the arm holes were off, so I had to frog it back to the very beginning to add a few more rows, but such is life and learning, but at least doing that shows me that while it is good to do a swatch, sometimes you just won’t know exactly until you are half way done and that’s just the way it is!
I did a fair amount of editing to the pattern once I got past making the arm holes (using the FSC edit some of the makers suggested so you did not have to cut/join your yarn). I have copied below what I wrote for my Ravelry notes here:
“I followed the pattern to a degree, I started with 56 chains using a 5.5 hook with DK yarn on the thin side. I started the arms at row 13 and used the FSC option noted by a few makers of this pattern instead of breaking and rejoining, this worked out very well.
As I went I needed the front sides to be a little wider so for the first/last 20 sts on each side I did 1 increase and kept it for the remainder of the body. So 5 DC then ch 2 instead of 4 like the normal repeat.
After I got the length good I went around with a row of HDC around the bottom and switched to DC’s up the middle and then back to HDC around the collar to give it some width for buttons and an edge. I did this 2 times around.
The sleeves I did 4 rounds of DC then 3 rounds of HDC, then 2 rounds of shells. I also did 2 rounds of shells on the bottom edge as a finishing. Then added the black buttons about 2 inches apart. I didn’t block it prior to taking the photos so the front edge curls a bit, not sure if I will (too much work for something I don’t feel I really need)”
Preferably I wish I could have made it about 2-3 inches longer on the body, but it still fits just fine and is not too tight or loose, which I am super happy about. The buttons are 1 inch black plastic buttons that I put on about 2 inches apart because I noticed after I finished my edging it wasn’t laying exactly flat and was flaring out a bit at the bottom, so the buttons fix all of that which I am fine with. Overall I am super happy with the final result, it fits well and I will certainly wear it!
Here are a bunch of pictures I took of the completed cardigan with some closeups of sections.
