Because the cold shouldn’t bother her, anyway.

Gauge: 6 sts/in

Materials that aren’t yarn:

• Beads: Seed bead, Delica®, glass, silver-lined crystal, (DBL41), #8 round. I ordered a million of them because I wasn’t sure how many I would want to include. (More is always better.)
• Rhinestone zipper. Yes, I know I’m going to have to shorten it. I’m going to use this tutorial from Threads, which has served me well historically.
• Oral B Superfloss for applying the beads, using the brilliant Rosemary Hill’s tutorial.
• Snowflake and Frozen Ribbon for matching hair bows (I use this tutorial), because I have NO IMPULSE CONTROL.
• Matching stitch markers. (See “NO IMPULSE CONTROL” above)
• You can find the small dress forms here
• Elsa tutu

So, this is a cobbled-together cardigan, combining elements from several sweaters. If you have an Elsa-loving-Frozen-holic like I do, and no fear of math/ripping/steeking, here are my basic guidelines:

• Start with the “Basic Child Seamless Yoke Sweater” pattern from The Knitter’s Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters (by Ann Budd).
• Once the yoke is about 1 1/2”, bead every 4(ish) rows. Stagger them, but I did beads (roughly) every 12 stitches.
• Work flat until after the 3rd increase round, then cast on 5 sts for the steek.

Now, here’s where the “Elsa” pattern comes in. Start on Row 19 of the chart, and work your way down to Row 1. (Because you’re knitting top-down, of course.)

• Incorporate the 15x15 snowflake chart from Yuletide Charts, but instead of doing colorwork, do them in sparkly beads.
• For the body: When you are about 2” short of the total body length from underarms (minus edging), place the 15x15 snowflake chart 6 sts in (on either side, fronts only) from the edge/steek sts (sort of where pockets would go).
• Place one on the top of each wrist on the sleeves.

Short row shaping for “cape”:

• Once I hit the “knit until body measures X from underarm”, I started shortrows on the body (working back and forth and ignoring the steek stitches), wrapping every 6th stitch. I’ll end once I have the center 12 stitches left, and then I’ll go back and pick up all my wraps on the return rows.
• THEN! I will be using the “Frill” from the Lautrec Bolero, and attaching it as I knit. (Directions below.)

Peplum/ruffle:

• Undecided on whether I am going to do one, but IF I do (which Andrew and Genevieve have both voted for, when polled for their opinions), I’ll do it with some short rows. IF you’re lucky, I’ll scratch down some notes on those, too.
• UPDATE: The peplum/ruffle are on. I’m using the directions (more or less) from the Lautrec Bolero from Jean Moss’ Sculptured Knits.
• Here’s how I did it: follow directions as written for the Frill EXCEPT do a K2TOG with one of the frill sts and one of the body sts on RS of the full rows. (Slip that stitch on the way back to make a nice little edgy-bordery thing.
• This will eat up 4 sts per ruffle. Just FYI. (You could probably do a P2tog on the return rows and have half as many ruffles, and it will likely be sufficiently ruffly. But we all know that MORE IS BETTER.

Facings:

• pick up 89 sts

Some helpful tips on the chart bit:
- Don’t do a bead round on a color chart round during an increase round. Especially if you happen to be watching a movie like “Insurgent” where they throw out the number four all willy-nilly. This way lies madness. (Also, skip “Insurgent” and pick a better movie.)

But Jasmin, why didn’t you just make it easy on yourself and knit the pattern as written?

I wanted Genevieve to be able to wear it as much as possible, and I fell in love with the Lisa Souza yarn and colors. Also, I’m not deeply in love with the shape of the front, and I have to make everything in life more complicated than it needs to be.