Knit a Sweet Speckled Cardigan for a Little One

Knitting for babies and toddlers is so satisfying because the projects are generally pretty small (for garments, anyway) and it’s easy to make them look fancy without a lot of extra work on your part.

The Growing Garden Cardigan by Sandi Rosner for Purl Soho is a project like that. It looks really interesting because of the colorwork, but it’s not at all that hard to do.

The cardigan uses slip stitches to break up the stripes, which is an easy technique that only requires working with one color of yarn at a time. The project is shown using one color for the background and four coordinating colors (made with their mini balls of yarn) for the stripes, but you can use a single solid color, a variegated colorway or odd balls left over from other projects.

Since this project is for kids its a great idea to use yarn that’s washable. The pattern calls for a DK weight cotton yarn.

The pattern comes in four sizes, to fit a newborn, 6-12 months, 12-18 months and 18-24 months, and is meant to be worn with an inch or two (2.5-5 cm) of positive ease since it will be worn over other clothes.

The design is a top-down cardigan worked flat in one piece, with the sleeves worked in the round from the top down after the body of the sweater is done. To make it even easier, you don’t have to cut the yarns you aren’t working with as you go; just carry them up the edge for fewer ends to weave in.

This project is a good introduction to sweater knitting if you’ve never done it before, and it would make a great gift for a little one in your life no matter the climate where they live. Of course you could also make this in a washable wool to make it warmer for kiddos who live in colder climates.

Grab the free pattern from Purl Soho.

[Photo: Purl Soho]

There are two schools of thought when it comes to instructional books about knitting. Either focus in one particular technique or kind of knitting (stranded knitting, say, or brioche) or try to cover a little bit of everything in a reference book that knitters will use throughout their careers.

The Knitting Book by Frederica Patmore and Dr. Vikki Haffenden aims to be the second kind. The subtitle is: a step-by-step guide to creating imaginative projects for the home and to wear. I’m not sure it does that, exactly, but it does include a quick look at a lot of different techniques and stitch patterns you might use in your projects.

A “guide to creating imaginative projects” sounds to me like it’s about design, but this book is not. There’s 1/3 of a page about altering patterns that only talks about how to add length to a sleeve and adjust where the increases go.

There’s nothing about measuring your body (the section on choosing a size in a pattern only suggests measuring a garment you already own), general garment construction, ease or stitch pattern multiples. The section on gauge (which is the last third of the page with choosing a garment size and altering patterns, discussed above) just says to knit a swatch, block and measure it to compare to a pattern, with no discussion on how you might use your swatch to design your own project or alter a pattern to meet your gauge.

If you ignore the subtitle, what you will find is a lot of information about different kinds of knitting and various techniques you might want to try on your projects. There are 20 cast ons and 15 bind off options, for instance, all discussed before you learn how to knit or purl. (Another quibble I have with this book is the order in which things are presented, but that’s relatively minor.)

You’ll find quick hits on increases and decreases, twists and cables, lace, colorwork, textured effects like fisherman’s rib and brioche, loops, mosaic knitting, double knitting, decorative stitches, shadow knitting, bias knitting, mitered squares, entrelac and more. There are tips for selvedge stitches, knitting with beads, adding buttonholes, picking up stitches and more.

A few patterns at the back give knitters a taste of some of the techniques included, but they’re not rated by skill level and the first one is a bias knit gradient scarf worked in six different colors of mohair, which isn’t a thing I’d wish on any beginner.

And I guess that’s maybe what my issue with the book is. I don’t know if it’s meant for beginners and it doesn’t seem to, either. I feel like this book would be overwhelming to new knitters and doesn’t really give you a place to start or all the information you might need to do projects well.

The variety of techniques included is fun, and there are also stitch patterns in the back you can use on your own projects, but again it doesn’t really provide any guidance for how to design your own projects so I don’t know how helpful all of that is.

I want to like books like this because having one reference that helps you with a lot of different things is great, I’m just not sure this is the one. If you can find it at your library or local book store and flip through it before buying, I think that would be a great idea to see if it’s a book that would be helpful for you.

And if you have this book and love it please let me know! I’m sure it’s good for someone I’m just not sure who.

About the book: 336 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by DK. Suggested retail price $40.

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