The Stepping Stones Cardigan is a Great Layer to Knit for Summer

Here I go talking about cardigans again, but Rebecca McKenzie just released a great new cardigan pattern called Stepping Stones and I’m obsessed.

The little diamond eyelet patterns on the edges make this design look polished without being too fancy, and the yarn is gorgeous (it’s a blend of wool, cashmere and silk, which sounds like the perfect thing to knit with right about now) and the open front design is universally flattering.

It’s worked from the bottom up and comes in 11 sizes up to a finished bust of 74.25 inches. She rates it intermediate but if you’re ever worked lace before (or are familiar with yarn overs and basic decreases) it’s totally doable.

The pattern runs $9 on Ravelry, but if you buy by June 16, 2020, you’ll get a 20 percent discount and 15 percent of sales will go to the Loveland Foundation.

[Photo: Rebecca McKenzie.]

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

Specific to knitters, you can join our Knitting Patterns Only group to get, well, knitting patterns, ask questions and gain inspiration for what to knit next.

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I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve shared any patterns for our circular knitting machine users. I know these devices aren’t for everyone but even though I much prefer knitting by hand, it is kind of fun to crank things out on these machines.

One of the most common early projects for a circular knitting machine is a scarf. Which makes sense, because it’s just one long tube and you can make it as long as you like.

One problem that comes from knitting scarves on the circular knitting machine, though, is that it can be hard to know how to finish the ends of the tube so that it looks like a finished scarf and not a tube of knitting.

If you’re not a knitter or crocheter, the most basic way to finish a circular knitting machine scarf is just by cinching up the ends and maybe adding a pompom to each end to cover up any hole that might still be visible at the end.

But if you have a little knitting or crochet skill or are willing to learn, there are a lot of different options for closing up the ends of a scarf. And this would also be true if you hand knit a tube scarf!

I recently wrote a post over at Our Daily Craft that includes five different ways to close up the ends of a tube scarf:

the simple cinching method mentioned above
sewing the stitches together
three needle bind off
grafting
crochet bind off

Grafting is my favorite because I feel like it gives the cleanest, closest to a seamless look. If you’re a knitter you may already know how to do it but even if you don’t it’s not that hard to learn.

Do you knit tube scarves by hand or machine? I’d love to know how you like to finish them!

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