Sunday Cardigan in Egret
Cardigans have long played a starring role in my wardrobe. As an avid sweater knitter, I’m always looking for great new cardigan patterns to try out. Petite Knit’s Sunday Cardigan – Mohair Edition immediately caught my eye. I love the rib detail on the yoke as it is eye-catching yet simple. I had followed a Petite Knit pattern before, Ellen’s cardigan, a baby to toddler sweater with pockets, and easy afterthought buttonholes. I loved this pattern and knitting this sweater was an absolute breeze, thanks to Petite Knit’s simple and easy-to-follow pattern instructions, free from overly complicated techniques and jargon. I do not have the patience to follow incomprehensible patterns. I come from the school of thought that patterns should make knitting easier, not harder. For this reason, I love Petite Knit’s patterns! Going with the Sunday Cardigan – Mohair Edition was a no brainer. My next task was to pick a yarn!
The Sunday Cardigan sample was knit with several strands of fuzzy mohair yarn. I’m familiar with this type of yarn, and you might be as well! It has an ethereal, fuzzy halo and a lighter-than-air feel. Knomad yarns EGRET organic single ply merino fingering yarn seemed like a natural choice for this project. It has a singly ply construction that is spun in a lofty way, I truly have no idea how they spin it to be this cloud-like and airy! The fine merino is quite soft, softer than the typical single ply yarn I find. It is non superwash, so be careful when you dye it. Leaving it too long on the heat could cause it to felt, do make sure to set a timer! (speaking from experience here) The upside of non superwash wool, or I guess I should say one of many upsides, is that it takes dye slowly. This makes it super easy to dye pastels, because the dye has the chance to soak all the way into the center of the yarn before permanently fixing to the fibre. To get the recommended gauge, I decided to hold two strands of EGRET together throughout the sweater. The original pattern uses 3 strands of a thin, lace weight mohair yarn, so I felt confident making this substitution.
The style of this sweater is meant to fit with plenty of positive ease. My bust line on most days measures about 41-42 inches, so I chose to make a size XL. With a finished measurement of 49.5 inches, that gives me a solid 7+ inches of ease, perfectly hitting the target set by the pattern. Petite Knit recently expanded their sizing for this pattern to accommodate sizes XS-5XL, which makes me happy to recommend it to you all! The size XL took only 4 skeins of EGRET to make (remember I knit two strands together throughout), with a little of one skein leftover at the end. Weighing less than 400 grams, I plan to wear this light cardigan both layered under coats, and on its own over dresses and skirts. The cardigan knits up seamlessly and quickly. The instructions are clear and to the point. All in all, this was a dream knit and super gratifying to make!
If I make this again, I will make sure to alternate skeins every 2 rows. I neglected to alternate skeins on this sweater, and you might notice the color pooling at the bottom of the cardigan. It is still wearable so I decided not to rip it, but this is a good rule of thumb for all those knitting with hand-dyed yarns to follow!
