Textures Add Interest to Stripes in this Kimono-Inspired Garment

Knitting projects — especially garments — often use just one or two stitch patterns, but sometimes it’s fun to use stitch patterns like stripes or even in conjunction with stripes, changing color and stitch pattern at the same time.

That’s what Mama in a Stitch did in her Monaco pattern, a kimono-inspired boxy cardigan that uses four colors and about half a dozen stitch patterns.

The effect is of a fun scrappy project (and you could totally do the same thing with odd balls from other projects) but one that is still unified by the harmonious colors.

Grab the pattern for free on her website or there’s a link there to the ad-free version you can buy.

[Photo: Mama in a Stitch.]

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

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I don’t know if it’s possible to look at the Snug Wrap from Sylvia Watts-Cherry and not smile. There’s so much fun stuff going on in it that if I had a bunch of sport weight yarn in my house I definitely would have cast this one on immediately after seeing it.

There’s stripes and circles of different sizes and colors, worked with intarsia. The wrap is worked sideways in both garter stitch and stockinette, so different sections also have different textures. Color blocking means you’ll use a lot of two main colors, and there are two more colors used for contrast throughout the piece.

As I mentioned, the project calls for sport weight yarn, and it’s already pretty big — 23.25 by 82 inches or 59 by 208 cm — so you probably wouldn’t want to use heavier yarn unless you just want to make it a super scarf. You could use even lighter yarn to make it more of a scarf than a shawl if you wanted.

The yarn used is a combination of Merino wool and recycled threads from La Bien Aimée’s yarn making process, so it’s a fun way to reduce waste while making something awesome.

The color motifs are depicted in charts in the pattern, but none of these are difficult so even if you’re new to chart reading you should be able to handle this pattern. The colors in the sample are so pretty but you can of course change it up with your favorites that will make you smile as you knit and wear this super fun pattern.

As usual, checking out the projects tab on Ravelry will show you some more fun color options. I love the idea of using jewel tones to give it a more wintry look, but the sky is the limit when it comes to color options.

You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Sylvia Watts-Cherry]

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