Keep it Simple with This Ribbed Cardigan

My love of cardigans is well documented, and I think I’m about to add another one to my must-knit list. While sometimes I love some good colorwork or fancy techniques, sometimes it is awesome to keep it simple. Summer, for instance, but really pretty much any time when you’re feeling like there’s a little too much going on and you need a bit of comfort from your knitting.

And if you can knit something that will give you even more comfort as the weather gets cooler, so much the better.

Enter the Leruo cardigan from Noma Ndlovu. This pretty little cropped, ribbed, V-neck, open front cardigan is worked in one piece from the top town and includes raglan shaping for a comfy fit. To add sleekness to the open fronts, the edgings are worked in double knitting for a smooth stockinette look that doesn’t curl.

The rest of the body and sleeves are worked in 2 by 2 ribbing, so it should be a pretty quick and easy project and even great travel knitting if you’re planning to do any of that this year.

As shown, the length is a bit cropped but you can always add a little length depending on how you plan to wear it. The suggested yarn is wool, but if you made it in a cotton blend, for example, the shorter length would be perfect for wearing over sun dresses. Add a little length (for me, anyway) and it’s perfect for layering in the cooler months.

However long you make it, the pattern comes in 10 sizes with finished bust measurements ranging from 34 to 60.75 inches, or 86.5 to 154.5 cm. It’s meant to be worn with 0-4 inches, or 0-10 cm, of positive ease, and the fronts don’t meet in the middle so there’s a wide range of fit options built into those sizes.

You can grab the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Noma Ndlovu]

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One great thing to knit when the weather is warm (or honestly any other time) is dishcloths and washcloths. They are fun and easy projects and a great way to play with new skills. Pretty washcloths make cleaning a tiny bit more fun, and they’re great to have on hand as a quick addition to a store-bought gift.

The Daisy Delight Dishcloth from Yarnspirations is a fun one for using leftover bits of green in your cotton yarn stash. What looks like the bottom in the picture is actually the left side as you knit it, and each little color section is worked with its own ball of yarn, intarsia style.

That’s a little fiddly for a washcloth, but the effect is cute, and it’s a simple way to learn the basics of intarsia knitting (as well as reading a chart) if you don’t already have those skills.

One the knitting is done, you add the flowers with a bit of lazy daisy embroidery, which is really easy to do even if you’re not that into embroidery. You could also potentially add flowers in duplicate stitch if you’d rather.

This may be the most work you’ve put into a dishcloth, but isn’t it adorable? It would be fun to use as a hand towel through the spring and summer, and if you already have some leftover green yarn from other projects it should be pretty easy to do.

You could also take this same concept and make it different colors. All dark green stems with stars on top might be reminiscent of Christmas trees, or brown with daisy stitch on top in different colors could be trees in the fall.

However you stitch it, this looks like a fun little project for knitters who are comfortable with intarsia and reading charts or who are ready to try those skills.

You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations.

[Photo: Yarnspirations]

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