Caitlin's Cardi

To say that I’m happy with the way this sweater turned out is an understatement! Just to catch everyone up, I stole a sweater from my friend Caitlin that she found at a thrift store in order to try to duplicate it because I loved it so much.

The Original Caitlin Cardi

I’ve spent a lot of time with this sweater. We are best friends now, really. I know a lot of her secrets. Which I am going to tell you because I’m a catty bitch like that:

1) I’m pretty sure this sweater was shrunk somewhere along the way because it really feels felted. The more I knit the stitch pattern I figured out it was worked in, what I’ve been calling the lazy man’s seed stitch, the more I noticed that mine looks super textured, where this poor old girl has been worked pretty hard.

2) This sweater is for sure a hand knit. In all my staring I found a few mistakes in the stitch pattern, but the seaming is perfect. I kept looking for seaming mistakes to confirm my hand knit suspicions, since anyone would be able to take one look at the inside of one of my sweaters and know instantly it’s hand made, but there are none.

3) She’s got a single crochet button bands and neck edging!

Cables, Crochet Button Bands

Cables, Crochet Button Bands

It’s a really smart and easy way to make button holes if you know how to crochet and if you can get that first row down. I had a hard time spacing the single crochets to make sure the front of the sweater didn’t pucker.

4) These sleeves are off the chain.

Puffed, Cabled Sleeves

Puffed, Cabled Sleeves

I started at the top of the shoulder with the cable band, did some fancy PU trickery, and knit the sleeves from there. Top. Down. Sleeves.

Puffy Sleeves!

I feel like Anne of Green Gables up in here! I accidentally typed Anne of Green Cables at first. **Filing that away for a future sweater name**

5) She’s got kinda boring pockets. That I modified to be way cuter!

Boring Pockets

HOTT Pockets!

I added a Cable Band to the tops of the mini pockets, just for a little added jazz and a little more depth. I mean, still pretty functionless, but if you aren’t going to have function you might as well be as cute as possible!

2/8/10 EDIT: Only need size 42″ test knitter now!

I want to have this sweater pattern available ASAP because I’ve already been getting some lovely feedback about it. And some scary threats that if I don’t have this pattern out soon I’ll find a horse head in my bed. So I need two more text knitters! If you are interested in test knitting the 34″ or 42″ bust size options email me at allyson[at]thesweatshopoflove[dot]com for more information.

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