I Knit myself the Palmetto Cardigan by Emilia Jensen, published in Pom Pom Quarterly, Issue 22: Autumn 2017.

I chose to knit myself size 4, which corresponds to a bust size of 41.75″. Originally I had cast on with three colours of Cascade 220 Superwash Sport yarn: Daffodil, Plum Crazy, and Summer Sky. However, after knitting the ribbing and a few centimetres of the body, I didn’t like the colour combo. Normally I don’t swatch (haven’t the patience!), but in this instance I should have, if just to test the colours.

In the end, I used the same type of yarn but in different colourways: Black, Natural, and Ruby. I bought the yarn from EweKnit, one of our favourite Toronto yarn shops.

The instructions have you work the Palmetto cardigan from the bottom up and in the round with a centre front steek. Once again, you use German short rows to knit the shoulder stripes. Then, you pick up the sleeves and knit top down, picking up the stitches around the armhole and decreasing to the cuffs. German short rows also shape the sleeve cap, a technique that I had never used before, but one that I now love! It adds a lovely shape to the sleeve and makes the sleeve look seamed (but it’s not!).

I had knit two previous steeked cardigans, and I love the technique. Normally, you’re supposed to use a ‘toothy’ yarn so that your knitting doesn’t unravel. However, I’ve found that if I use my sewing machine to reinforce the steek, I can get away with using superwash wool.

This was the first time I knit a fair isle, or corrugated, rib, and I found it quite tricky. Normally I knit holding my yarn Continental-style, but alternating the knit and purls in different colours was initially difficult. Thankfully you knit that part in the round, so I got the hang of it. However, you knit the neckband and buttonbands flat, so that you knit the fair isle rib forwards and backwards. That was a challenge for me! I wanted the bottom ribbing and cuff ribbing to be equal, so I I knit each with 10 rounds.

Although I followed the directions for the body of the cardigan, I found that unblocked, it felt quite cropped. I debated whether or not to cut into the body to knit a few centimetres of length, but then I decided against it. I don’t think grafting the whole body would end up looking good!

The sleeves in the pattern photos and schematic look cropped, so I lengthened them. After knitting the sleeve decreases, I knit 45 rounds of plain stockinette.

I love that this cardigan is seamless, as seamed sweaters just include an extra step of finishing! However, all those decorative black and white features come with dozens of ends to weave in! Finishing a knit garment always takes me a while to do. Once I set my mind to it, I find the actual weaving in of ends doesn’t take that long.

Once I had finished all the knitting, I reinforced the centre front steek with my sewing machine. Since I used superwash wool, I knew that it would be too slippery to reinforce with just crochet. I used a straight stitch and a zig-zag stitch on each side of the steek, and then I cut it open! Once cut, I folded the cut edge back and sewed a woven ribbon over top to hide the raw edges.

You can get the individual pattern for Palmetto on Ravelry here.

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