Finished Project: Brigid Cardigan!

Courtney’s “most hearted” pattern from Vintage Modern Knits is the Brigid Jacket {pattern link} {project page link}, a sweater that has proven to be quite popular! Knit out of Terra, Courtney also opted to use the very popular Black Walnut color.  Its duo-tone brown and green-blue goes with all of the earthy off-tones in Courtney’s wardrobe ensuring she will always be grabbing it off the shelf come wintertime.

Unable to knit the same thing the same way twice, Courtney decided to change the Brigid Jacket up a bit with some simple modifiations that anyone could easily adapt for their own use. Courtney’s hips measure 2″ wider around than her bust, a subtle pear shape rather than the traditional hourglass. To allow for this she cast on for the fronts and back for the second size, the 40″, and began decreasing after the ribbing every 10th row until she had the correct number for the first size, the 36″. This allows the cardigan to button comfortably at the hip and the bust. For those with very small waists, the sweater could be decreased even further and then increased back up to your desired bust measurement.

The second modification was to change the overall look of the jacket by making it more of a traditional cardigan shape. As written, the jacket is slightly cropped, so she wanted to lengthen it. For her bust size, 36″, the cable repeat is worked on the fronts 3 times before the underarm shaping. Due to the integrated cable decreases at the neck it was necessary that any additional length she added was done in increments of the cable repeat. By changing this to work an additional 2 repeats of the cable pattern, the fronts were lengthened by about 6″ making the cardigan fall mid-hip.

For the sleeves Courtney opted for a long sleeve version for chilly winter days instead of the trans-seasonal half-sleeve. She began with 38 sts at the cuff, increasing every 6th row to the number specified for her size, a method that should work well for all the sizes if this is something that you wanted to do as well!

The next consideration was the button bands. The fronts now measured about 21.5″ in length instead of the 15.5″ as listed in the pattern. Picking up 84 sts along each front instead of 60 accommodated the additional 6″ of length. She worked the left front button band first and decided on button placement using safety pins to mark their location. Then she worked the right button band adding buttonholes as written to match the button placement. The final step was the collar, which – phew! – needed no modifications as the neck shaping was knit exactly as written!

All in all, a great everyday cardigan that’s just a bit different from it’s jacket-y cousin.  It’s lucky that we’ve been having this brief rainy cold snap here in Philadelphia, we think she’s going to get some use out of this sweater before fall arrives!