The Eva Cardigan is knit in a DK yarn and is a low v-neck with four buttons. It is a design by PetiteKnit (link to pattern below). I began to knit this – cast on – around the middle of September and finished the end of October. I found it to be a good pattern and love the sweater. Also, I learned some new things along the way.
I used a new yarn too. Sandnes Garn Peer Gynt, which is a DK, but really seems more like a worsted to me.
Although I have knit a few cardigans, none have had a shoulder construction like this one. I also had to watch a video to complete the buttonholes.
The designer lists this pattern as a 4 out of 5 difficulty.
The Pattern and Yarn
The yarn is nice and I was very happy knitting with it. I bought mine at Wool & Company. It is made of Norwegian wool and the Peer Gynt is DK weight, but seems heavier. Wool and Company offers many colors, including heathers and tweed.
I bought 12 skeins of Sandnes Garn Peer Gynt yarn in color “Eucalyptus” green – per my daughter’s color request. I ended up with nearly two skeins leftover. But, better too much than not enough!
I knit a swatch with size 6US needles and it was a bit large. I don’t have many needles in size 5 (and then go down 2 sizes for the ribbing), so I chose to use the sixes (with size 4 for rib) and knit the extra-small size sweater. (Lots of various length needles are needed for this sweater in both the 4 and 6 sizes.)
However, this cardigan is being knit for my daughter, who is tall and thin, and likes longish sleeves. I’ll be adding length to the body (end measurement is 23 inches) and especially the sleeves (18.5 inches).
Wool and Company notified me that only 10 skeins were matching dye lot numbers, so two would be off, but very similar. I took them anyway, and have used one of the odd dye lots to knit the body ribbed hem. I was saving the other for the button band – but never had to use it.
Buy this pattern – Eva Cardigan – at Ravelry.
Hurdles During Knitting
After the initial neck knitting, stitches have to be picked up at each of the shoulders. I really didn’t know how to do this, so I used another needle to pick them up and then added those stitches to the main needle.
I think this may be called a “saddle shoulder”, but I’m not sure. The design idea is to keep the sweater from sliding off the shoulders – I think.
Picking Up Stitches for Button Band
Picking up stitches for the button band is not at all my favorite thing to do when knitting! This always takes me hours. I love cardigans, but it’s one of the things I dislike about knitting them.
For this wide button band, which goes up one side, around the neck, and down the other, the total number of stitches picked up needed to be divisible by four in order to make the 2×2 ribbing. Also, while you’re at it, make sure both front sides have the same number of stitches.
At least the designer said to pick up 3 for every 4 stitches. I guess most knitters know this, but I appreciate the instructions. (This is something another designer didn’t bother to mention and my Carbeth cardigan is totally messed up because of it.)
I watched a helpful video by Cocoknits which advised to only do the picking up of stitches, and not “pick up and knit”. YES! Do this! Then, when your counts are off (be prepared to count and count and count), it is easy to remove the picked up stitches and fix the count, which I did… over and over. FINALLY.. I got everything worked out correctly.
How to Make the Buttonholes
The buttonhole directions in the pattern are a little confusing when it comes to doing the “double backward loop”. Many thanks to another knitter, who referenced the video below which shows how it’s done. I am not sure my purl 2 together through the back loop was done right, as it looked a little too loopy.
This YouTube video by Kimmie Mulkholm shows the buttonhole construction for the Eva Cardigan. It is not in English, but can be understood easily using CC or not.
In the End
I have a pretty nice sweater now, which is a gift for my daughter. Since she lives in New England, it will get used a lot. It is currently being dried, on mats in a room with the dehumidifier running (necessary here in Florida), and then the buttons will be added.
This sweater seems quite big. Then again, my gauge was off. The shoulders and sleeves fit me just fine and I knit the XS size. I would like a wider body for myself so I’m not sure which size I’d choose to knit for myself.
As is usually true of hand knits, especially wool knits, the fabric smooths out and ends up looking incredibly good. I’m so pleased with the end product. I would knit it again – next time it will be for me!
Here is a little post about how I sewed on the buttons.
New England's Narrow Road 