Beginner Lace Cardigan
Thanks for joining our Beginner Lace Cardigan knit along!
1. The place to start is setting a schedule! Download the Schedule for Beg Lace KAL here. I recommend putting it on your calendar, and looking at each week to figure out when you have time to give to this project. I don’t always follow my plan exactly, but it is good to know if you are going to need to sit with your feet up on a Saturday afternoon to get some serious knitting done!
2. Swatching Instructions for the Beginner Lace Cardigan are the next step. If you are not a regular garment knitter you may not be used to having to get gauge before you start a project. It seems time consuming and that it might be a waste of time, but getting the right size in a garment is so important. The BLC Swatchv2 pdf guides you through knitting a swatch and blocking it. I always do what I call a garment swatch which has a neckline so I can practice my trim pick ups later on and do some shoulder shaping practice in my stitch pattern. You can leave stitches live if you want to do that and just do the blocked gauge portion now. You can now download a chart that matches the written instructions for the swatch. BLC Swatch Chart
3. This BLC Planning Worksheet-Body is detailed and will help you get a big picture view of what happens at each step of the knitting process. I know no one likes to read the pattern, so I did it for you! You can tackle each segment as you get to it because I read ahead and alert you of anything you need to be thinking about. For now, it is just the Body. We need to check the numbers on the sleeves again.
4. As we combed through the pattern to create the Planning Worksheet, we found some BLC Erratav2.1. I’ll update this page periodically as needed. Most of the errors are in the beginning of the pattern!
5. I’ve made charts for the Bottom Trim, the Decrease to Body and a Key for my charting system:
These have been refined a bit if they have a v# in their name.
If you don’t care for this charting system, there is a basic chart in the Love of Knitting pattern. Also, you can put the pattern into Stitch Maps to get a more familiar chart. If I get to it I’ll do that later this week. Think of my charts as “Action” charts. They tell you what to do–not what it looks like from the right side.
6. Now there is a chart for the Body. This includes all stitches from one front band through the opposite one! If you like working from charts, this is for you.
- BLC Body Chart This now has stitch numbers for each section in it.
7. Want to plan your own knitting schedule for the BLC? Here’s a worksheet to do that. BLC Knitting Planner
8. In case you don’t like my Action charts, I put the stitch patterns into Stitch Maps and created documents for you. They aren’t as pretty as mine, but use them if they work better for you!
- SM blc-bottom-trim-body-key
- SM blc-bottom-trim-swatch
- SM blc-bottom-trim-body
- SM ears-of-grass-1-key
- SM ears-of-grass-1
- SM beginner-lace-cardigan-swatch
- SM blc-body-patterns
9. I’ve created two additional documents. The first will explain working bind offs within a row. This is often confusing, so I’ve broken it down for you. The second document explains using the shaping charts and provides blank charts for you to fill out to work your Left Front Armholes. Be sure to look at the sample which is the first chart that appears in the document.
- BLC Divide for Armholes
- BLC Left Armhole Shaping (v1.1 updated 7/23/15)
10. This has the bind off explanation in it–but it is just a repeat. There are charts for the front neck shaping for each size. The first chart is the sample.
11. Back Armhole (AH) shaping charts are now available. If you wonder why the back armhole shaping is different, go here for an explanation.
12. Right Front Neck Shaping
13. Left and Right Sleeve to Underarm Charts
- BLC Sleeve Charts, Left and Right Sleeve to Underarm
