Knit the Perfect Argyle Cardigan

Confession time: I have had the yarn to knit an argyle vest for longer than my daughter (who is about to be 14) has been alive.

It’s a pattern from the book Picture Perfect Knits by Laura Birek, which came out the year before she was born. I know I bought the yarn around the same time because it’s the actual yarn called for in the pattern (and even some of the same colors the designer used).

I don’t know why I haven’t knit it.

I just unearthed the yarn the other day because I’ve been cleaning out my yarn cabinet. Maybe this is the year I actually knit it.

This project is on my mind not just because I just found the yarn again, but also because I recently came across this super cute argyle cardigan knitting pattern, which also might need to be on my to-knit list.

It’s a pattern from Marly Bird, and it’s a great one if you’ve never done an argyle pattern before, because it has a lot of detailed instructions and links to videos to help you with the intarsia if you haven’t used that technique before.

Intarsia is different from Fair Isle or stranded knitting because, instead of carrying the unused yarn across the row, you work a section in a color with one piece of yarn, then pick up a new ball for the next section and leave the old yarn where you finished working with it. Because of this it’s easiest to work intarsia in flat pieces rather than in the round, so a cardigan is perfect for that.

This one uses four colors, and the back and sleeves are plain knitting and a solid color, so the cardigan fronts are the only colorful bit. The pattern comes in seven sizes, with a finished chest measurement of 40 to 70 inches, and is meant to be worn with 4-6 inches of positive ease.

You can grab the free pattern on Marly’s website.

[Photo: Marly Bird]

Knit a Single Color Argyle-Style Vest

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I feel like I haven’t shared many knitting machine patterns lately, probably because I haven’t been using my knitting machines much lately. (I finally made space for them to live on the bookshelf in my office, and now that they have a “place” it’s almost like I forgot they existed for a while.)

But I did recently make a little cat bed, that surely would work for a small dog, too.

This one uses two different sizes of knitting machine: a larger one (it could be any in the 40-48 needle range) and a 22 pin.

The larger machine is used in flat panel mode to make the bottom pillow like part of the bed, while the smaller machine makes a long tube that is used around the edges as the sort of walls of the cat bed.

For stuffing I used a bit of leftover quilt batting for the pillow, and some cut up old T-shirts for the tube.

You can use any worsted weight yarn you like (I used two colors of Big Twist Pound+, which comes in huge skeins that weigh more than a pound). Acrylic or cotton yarn is nice for washablity, but you’ll be cranking for a while so make sure you use a yarn your machine likes so it’s not too much of a struggle.

You can grab the pattern for this cat bed over at Our Daily Craft. I’m sorry to report the pictured is as close as a cat has gotten to it so far, but maybe your cats like to be cozy more than mine do?

If you’re looking for more options for cute handmade places for your cats and little dogs to rest, check out this roundup of knit pet beds. I still want to knit one by hand but the machine version was definitely a faster option (especially good since my cats are ungrateful).

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