Free Knitting Pattern: The Coziest Cardigan You’ll Ever Knit

I can’t come right out and say that the Oh So Cozy cardigan from Caron/Yarnspirations is the coziest cardigan ever, because I’ve never knit it. But it certainly looks like it could be a contender.

I love a good long cardigan. With pockets? And a belt? This pattern is definitely hitting all the notes I would look for in a great cardigan knitting pattern.

The project calls for Caron Simply Me Mosaic yarn, a bulky blend of acrylic, nylon and wool that brings the warmth, shine and durability, but is also machine washable and dryable. This particular version of Simply Me also has a subtle multicolor that’s self striping, making this project look a little more interesting without any extra work.

It comes in four sizes that fit a range of bodies. The finished chest measurement of the garment ranges from 46 to 64 inches, or 122 to 165.5 cm, so you can pick the amount of ease that you would like depending on your size. I’d definitely want a bit of room because this one is meant to be an outer layer, whether you wear it at home or out and about.

Let’s be real, if I knit this one it would definitely become my new wear around the house sweater.

The sweater is worked from the bottom up in one piece, starting with the bottom edge of double stockinette stitch (which involves strategically slipping stitches to make a fabric that looks knit on both sides).

The rest of the body is worked in regular stockinette, and the minimal shaping means that this project is suited to newer knitters. There is some finishing involved, though, as the bands, sleeves and pockets (and optional belt loops) are all worked separately and then sewn on.

But I feel like all of that would be worth it to have this cozy cardi in your wardrobe. If you make it I want to hear how it turns out! Grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations.

[Photo: Yarnspirations]

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When I was looking around for free knitting patterns to share recently, I came across this fun leopard print wrap from Yarnspirations.

This fun bulky wrap gives you tons of practice with instarsia and makes a bold statement while keeping you warm. It’s rated for intermediate knitters and the design is charted but pretty easy to follow. And it’s only 50 rows and worked in bulky yarn, so it wouldn’t even take that long to knit. (You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations.)

So what’s the problem? The yarn that the pattern calls for has been discontinued, and it’s not a yarn that a substitute for immediately springs to mind.

The original yarn was Patons Alpaca Blend, a single ply bulky yarn that was a combination of acrylic, superwash wool, nylon and alpaca.

My first thought was Lion Brand Hue + Me, which is an acrylic and wool blend, with two plies instead of a single. It looks like it has the colors you would need to make this fun shawl.

But as I was thinking about it, I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce you to YarnSub if you don’t already know about it. This website is a giant database of yarn that can consider the qualities of the yarn you want to substitute and offer potential substitutions.

It’s not only thinking about yarn weight, like I was, but also fiber content, number of plies, gauge and even the difference in yardage between one ball and another. It even looks at the price and can be filtered by your price range or preferences about fiber content (if, say, you’re sensitive or allergic to wool, for example, or don’t want to you acrylic).

When I plugged in Alpaca Blend, it gave me a lot of different options, though many of them were self-striping or multicolored, which wouldn’t work for this project, and I don’t see a way to filter for solid colors only.

Still, it’s a good tool to give you some ideas you might not know about or might have forgotten about, and it tells you how the new yarn is similar to the old one and how it differs, allowing you to make smarter choices when substituting yarns.

[Photo: Yarnspirations]

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