I’m so excited to tell you about my new design, Audrey’s Cardigan!
I’m excited for a couple of reasons. One, I just love this simple design and think so many of you will love making it and wearing it – I think it can be your next “go-to” sweater! Second, it has such a great “sweater story” to it. I’ll start with the sweater story first, and then tell you a bit more about the design and pattern itself…
The Sweater Story of Audrey’s Cardigan…
Back in 2010, in the early days of my knitting design career, I submitted a design idea to an online knitting magazine (named “Petite Purls”) and for the first time my idea was accepted! As a designer, when you submit design proposals to third-party publishers, you never know if they will be accepted or not – I had done a bunch prior to this that had been declined, so this was the first publication who ever said “yes” to me! I knit it up and Audrey, the daughter of my good friends, was my adorable model (she was a natural!):
The pattern was named Audrey’s First Day, named after her and the fact that she was just about to start pre-K at the time of the release (and here’s a fun fact: my very first sweater I ever knit and finished was actually for Audrey, when my dear friends were pregnant with her!) Now let’s fast-forward to 2020 – Audrey is now entering her Freshman year of High School (wow does time fly!) and we were chatting about how cool it would be to do an update on the sweater and have her model it now, in the same park we had done the original. And so the teen/adult version was born – simply named “Audrey’s Cardigan”:
And for some “then-and-now” shots, here’s a little collage I put together:
I can’t thank Audrey enough for being such a wonderful model and inspiration for the design, and her mom (and my dear friend) for helping with on-shoot creative direction and support (both ten years ago and today!).
The Sweater…
So now that you know the whole fun back-story of this sweater, let’s talk about the knitty-gritty (pun intended). Audrey’s Cardigan is a seamless, top-down v-neck cardigan for teens and adults that uses bulky-weight yarn (so it’s a quick knit too!). I used Berroco’s Ultra Wool Chunky – I love the feel of this yarn! I used Sour Cherry as the main color and Chili as the contrasting color.
Instructions include 3 different body shaping options – either no shaping (so just straight down from the underarm to the hem – this is the version I used in Audrey’s sample), waist-shaping, or A-line shaping. It’s designed to be a bit on the cropped side, but the pattern includes tips on how to make it longer if you prefer. My goal with this piece was to make it a simple, versatile piece that you can tailor to your own personal style. Click here to purchase your instant-download copy!
Join the Virtual KAL!
I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be hosting a virtual knitalong (KAL) for Audrey’s Cardigan! I’ll be sharing video tutorials of every major step in the cardigan, so it’s both a KAL as well as an online class (perfect for you sweater-newbies out there!). For all of the details about the KAL, how to join and when it starts, click here!