What’s in the Cards for You, Sweater Knitter?

Sometimes I’ll scroll through Ravelry to find patterns to share and I don’t look at them all that closely before deciding to feature them. So just looking at the top of the pattern page for the Tarot Card Sweater by Tamara Jordan, for example, I just saw these two variations you see here: the moon and the star.

Of course that would be enough to make this a really cool pattern and worthy of sharing, but no, it gets even better.

There are not just two but actually six different options for the card you want to feature on your sweater: the moon, the star, the sun, the lovers, death, and our own special tarot card for the knitter.

Come on.

I didn’t cast this one on immediately because I don’t have a sweater quantity of sport weight yarn in my stash, but I tell you this one is definitely going on my list (maybe with another version for my daughter, too).

The pattern is worked flat in pieces from the top down and features a drop shoulder and crew neck style. The sleeves are worked in the round after the front and back are sewn together.

The designer suggests using ladderback jacquard to manage long floats on the back, though I think you could do a combo of stranded knitting and intarsia, too, depending on the design you’re working.

It’s intended to have about 6 inches of positive ease (that’s 15 cm) and the pattern comes in five sizes ranging from 36 to 68 inches (or 91.5 to 172.5 cm). I’d say this would be good for intermediate knitters who have some experience with colorwork. In addition to those skills, you’ll also need to be able to work increases and decreases, as well as German short rows.

You can find the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Tamara Jordan]

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn.

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small.

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches.

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come.

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you.

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?).

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry.

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns.

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]

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