You might be surprised why I’m doing a pattern review if this cardigan is offered as a kit in WAK’s website right? So here’s the thing… I bought this pattern during a WAK pattern sale (back in… April?) when I wasn’t so confident in my knitting skills and I was lost without a pattern to guide me through every step of the way. Since I used another yarn (instead of the Meriwool, which I haven’t tried yet) I wanted to review it as a pattern and who knows… maybe in the future I will review it as a kit when I try the Meriwool!
As other pattern reviews, I divided it into a few sections so it’s easy to follow and I hope to answer the questions you might have before buying the pattern.
LET’S TALK A BIT ABOUT THE PATTERN:
This pattern is designed by We Are Knitters. It is a knitting pattern with which you will obtain a cozy cardigan, that you will be able to combine easily with any outfit (from wearing it in your house to going out / or casual work outfit).
The pattern covers sizes S to XL and it is available in 6 different languages: German, English, French, Spanish, Italian and Polish. I acquired it for 4,90€ in WAK’s website and once purchased you receive the PDF file in your inbox (yup, no paper so it’s a good idea to be a little more conscious about the environment).
The level specified in the pattern is begginer, which I think it’s very appropiate since it doesn’t require much effort, just time and keep knitting rows over and over again.
MATERIALS:
As listed in the website (and the pattern of course), for this pattern you will need:
- 5 mm knitting needles. I used flat needles but it’s completely up to you (maybe circular needles are a good option to knit the sleeves in the round)
- E.g. 9 skeins (S, M, L, XL) x 100g We Are Knitters The Meriwool or a similar wool (100g = ~130m) *In the alterations part I will talk about the yarn I used knitting this pattern.
- Sewing needle.
I also used 2 stitch markers since I added edge stitches to every piece (I will talk about it in the alterations section) and a lot more to count rows!
HOW IS IT DONE:
It’s a cardigan that is knitted in 5 pieces: back, 2 fronts and 2 sleeves which makes it pretty easy to create (especially because of their rectangular shape)
The pattern recommends you to start with the back part, then the 2 frontal pieces and then the sleeves. I followed a similar process (except that I wanted to create a whole side first to see the “final” result as soon as possible) since I always find it better to start with the back since if you are new to the stitches used or knitting, probably the first piece you knit won’t look so neat and perfect as you would like, so it’s easier to hide when it’s in the back.
Since this cardigan is all knitted with garter stitch, the basic techniques you must know for the pattern are: Knit stitch – cast-on – cast-off.
In case you are not very familiar with the techniques above, WAK has videos in their YouTube channel to help you along the way.
My recommendation, as always, is to check your gauge so you can obtain the desired measurements. I always find a hard time trying to find the right gauge for WAK patterns so I always end up modifying it till I obtain the same measurements (in case you have missed my post about the importance of gauge and swatching – here you have the link!)
HOW CLEAR WAS IT TO FOLLOW:
I think WAK patterns go straight to the point and if things are very repetitive they only state in a line or two how many stitches should you cast and how many rows should you need till cast-off.
In this case since the pattern was very simple I didn’t see any problem or cons at the time. The only thing I miss from WAK patterns is that finishing touch that gives your knitwear a bit of a professional look (ie. edge stitches for the front pieces).
My recommendations for this type of pattern? I like to keep my box of stitch markers close to me so I can see how many rows have I knitted with a simple glance. I like to put a stitch marker in every 10 rows so I can easily count when I’m lost or know how many more I have left to go.
ALTERATIONS I MADE
- Yarn: I used veggie wool original from Casasol Filicor (planning a review on this one too!), which is 500gr / 500m, I used 1.2kg for size XL (since I bought it on sale my yarn was a bit more of 30€ in total – including the pattern, my kit would be a total of 35€ euros – not bad at all).
- Edge stitches: in every single piece of the cardigan. I think the edges gives that “professional” and neat look to the front pieces (instead of having the garter stitch edges – picture above) and it is also easier to sew the pieces together (and the look of the inner sides also seem more neat – like the picture above).
- Length of sleeves: I shortnened them since I didn’t need them so long (I recommend you try to hold the back part and one front together (or two if you have them already knitted before the sleeves) and try the sleeves one you had a fair amount of rows already knitted to make sure they are the length that you want.
Other changes I would tell my past self to add:
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- Circular needles to knit the sleeves in the round (why didn’t I think about it before?)
- Since I was using a different yarn and I wasn’t that sure of the result, I knitted each piece separately, but you could always knit the back and front pieces together up till the beginning of the sleeve (less sewing… a big motivation right?).
- Maybe picking up the stitches from the body to create the sleeves to avoid more sewing.
- I was pretty happy by adding the edge stitches BUT the front pieces were a bit wider than the pattern, I should exchanged two normal stitches for two edge stitches in each piece (but I’m happy with the final results that you can see below).
THE RESULT:
I made my sweater size XL since I was looking for an oversized cardigan (the model in the pictures of the kit is also wearing an XL size cardigan). I think this will be another go-to handmade project that will be perfect for colder days and you can rock it with jeans or with more dressy black trousers.
I think it is a basic style cardigan, and as I said before, you can combine it with anything and wear it as a cardigan or spring / autumn less colder days kinda coat jacket if you go with the oversized style.
Would I make another Chord cardigan? Yes and no, let me explain myself. I love the structure of this pattern and I think it’s great for a cardigan, so I would reuse the same structure but with other stitches (maybe crochet… why not?) to create another cardigan but I would not rather have another garter stitch cardigan since I would think it would be a bit repetitive even if it’s in another color.
Hope this post helped you to get a better insight of the pattern. See you next week!
Xx,
Marta