Stitch a Cardigan with Mini Colorwork

I love a pattern with a good back story. Maxine the Mini is inspired by the designer, Jimenez Joseph’s Mini Cooper car, whose name happens to be Maxine. You can see her in the background of this picture, because I knew you’d want to. Different shapes and features of the car inspired the designs of the colorwork on the sleeves and patch pockets of this cardigan.

The pattern is worked in superfine yarn from the top down. The body is worked in a solid color, as are part of the sleeves. That part of the sleeve is finished with ribbing so it looks like the colorwork part of the sleeve is another shirt layered under the first. So cute.

The colorwork is also found on the patch pockets, which visually breaks up all that solid color stockinette. It’s also a great way to practice doing colorwork both flat and in the round.

The pattern has seven sizes ranging in chest measurement from 30 inches to 54 inches. It’s a crew neck design with set in sleeves and a button band with kind of a lot of buttons.

This is one of those sweaters that you can wear even when it’s warmer out because it uses such light weight yarn. In all you will need five or six colors (the main body color can be used in the colorwork portion to make it a little more harmonious, or go wild and use all different colors).

You can get this pattern from Ravelry.

It has admittedly been a long time since I’ve collected patterns for warm weather cardigans, but if you’re looking for more, check out this roundup of cardigans to knit for summer from a few years ago. Maybe I’ll update it this summer!

Looking for more knitting patterns for knitted cardigans? Check out these Knitting patterns we found on Etsy.

[Photo: Jimenez Joseph.]

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If you’re looking for a sweater knitting pattern that uses up some of your stash and allows you to make just the sweater you want, the Marlina Rib by Shay Johson might be just the thing.

It’s worked with two strands of fingering weight yarn held together to make a DK weight gauge, so you can use the same two yarns throughout or change one or both regularly for an even more colorful look.

The pattern has options to make it either a crewneck or a henley style with buttons, tapered or relaxed sleeves, and a straight hemline or a split hem with buttons (which sounds so cute if you do the henley with split hem and match the buttons on both parts).

It’s also knit from the top down so you can make the body and the sleeves as long as you want. There are 10 sizes available in the pattern, with a chest circumference ranging from 32 to 68 inches, or 81.5 to 172.5 cm. It’s meant to be worn with 4-6 inches/10-15 cm of positive ease at the chest.

The pattern page on Ravelry includes tons of measurements and yardage estimates so you can make sure you’ll get a good fit for your body before you even buy the pattern. Shay also shows a few variations of the sweater so you can see how different options look before you decide how you want to put them together.

The stitch pattern is 1×2 ribbing, which is really easy to do and gives a look almost like fisherman’s rib that’s relaxed and easy to wear.

This sweater looks like a great option for people who are somewhat new to sweater knitting or those who love to have lots of customization options (because it’s like getting multiple sweater patterns in one!).

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern for yourself at Ravelry.

[Photo: Shay Johnson]

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