This is a sweet and simple top-down cardigan with cap sleeves and buttons in the yoke section. Trailing stems wind their way down each side of the front, with oak leaves branching off all the way down. The leaf motif is repeated around the yoke. The pattern can easily be adapted to add long sleeves or buttons all the way down.

There is now another version of this pattern, Oak leaves cardigan version 2, which has a slightly different arrangement of leaves and is designed for heavier weight yarn. If you have already bought the pattern for the Oak leaves cardigan, you will get the version 2 pattern half price.

Overview
The cardigan starts at the neckline and increases gradually down the length of the yoke. The sleeves are then cast off and the back and fronts joined at the armpit. From then on it’s all straight! Buttonbands and edgings are knitted as you go, so once you get to the bottom, there’s nothing left to do except weave in ends and sew on buttons. There is no seaming involved. There are charts for the leaf motif and the yoke section, the remainder of the pattern is written.

Sizes and yarn requirements
Small: bust 81-86cm/32-34”. Approximately 800m/880 yards of sport-weight yarn.
Medium: bust 91.5-96.5cm/36-38”. Approximately 900m/985 yards of sport-weight yarn.
Large: bust 101.5-106.5cm/40-42”. Approximately 1000m/1095 yards of sport-weight yarn.
Extra large: bust 112-117cm/44-46”. Approximately 1100m/1200 yards of sport-weight yarn.

Other weights of yarn can be used, from fingering to worsted, so long as you can get the gauge required and the fabric desired. A yarn with high wool content will work best for blocking.

Materials
4mm (US 6) circular needle or size required to obtain gauge (you can use long straight needles if you prefer, but they may get very crowded towards the end of the yoke).
Up to 10 stitchmarkers (2 are handy, the rest are optional).
Cable needle
Three buttons
Tapestry needle for weaving in ends.

Skills required
Simple lace stitches, cabling, reading charts.

A special thank you to all my lovely testers for this pattern: hector09, villageknitting, jkld11,saun0098, dayana, Valentina777, JurgaM and rgoriginals. Their projects demonstrate how well the pattern suits solid colours, variegated and slow colour change yarns. Some of them used buttons all the way down the front so you can see that variation. Dayana has provided a recipe for the acorns she used on the sleeves here.