I love seeing finished photos of my designs. I love to see when knitters find ways to make it their own – it could be their color choice, changing the length or even just how they have styled it to make it truly unique to them. Recently I saw a beautiful photo posted on Ravelry of my finished Layla cardigan that I just had to share with you here – the knitter is Lonneke who lives in the Netherlands (thank you Lonneke for letting me share your beautiful work!).
First, let me show you what my original Layla looks like – as you can see below, the body features contrasting colors of 1 row stripes:
And below is Lonneke’s version – as you can see, instead of doing 1 row stripes with contrasting colors, she used a self-striping yarn for the body instead!
How beautiful is this version?! For her main solid yarn, she used Cascade 220 in the natural color (3 skeins for size L). The self-striping yarn is Noro Akari (color #16, 2 skeins). Such inspiring work!
About the pattern…
Layla is knit seamlessly from the bottom-up. You start with a wide garter stitch hem in the main color, and then the body is worked in Stockinette stitch to the underarms (the pattern explains how to work 1 row stripes this way, or you can use Lonneke’s idea and use self-striping yarn instead!). At the underarms the Fronts and Back are separated and worked individually up to the shoulders with short rows to create the shoulder curve. Shoulders are then attached using the Three Needle Bind-off technique. Stitches are then picked up along each Front edge and back neck and worked in Garter stitch to create front bands (you can add buttonholes if you like!). Stitches are also picked up and worked in Garter stitch around each armhole. I have video or photo tutorials of all the techniques used in this pattern on my “Techniques” page!
If you’re interested in making your own Layla, click here for all the pattern details and to purchase the PDF!