If you’ve ever seen a self-striping sock yarn and wished those stripes would work up as cute on a sweater as they are on socks, this cardigan is for you! The Joyce Cardigan is designed with four intarsia panels on each front and seven intarsia panels on the back, all of varying widths that are narrow enough that the self-striping yarn can do its magic and create neat, horizontal stripes. It features a classic, simple shape with ¾-length sleeves, a crew neck, and a straight fit that won’t compete for attention with busy yarns.

The intarsia panels will create a mixed stripe look when knit with all the same colorway of self-striping yarns and were designed with Felicinni’s stripe sequences in mind, making complete stripes on all the central panels. Instead of using multiple balls of the same self-striping colorway, the panels can also be knit using a different solid color for each panel or a mixture of self-striping and solids, or the panels can be eliminated entirely to make a simple, light cardigan.

The Joyce Cardigan is knit in pieces and seamed to make managing the number of yarns used at the same time easier. The body is straight without waist shaping and has armhole and crew-neck shaping. The ¾-length, set-in sleeves are also knit flat and eased into the armholes. After seaming, stitches are picked up and knit for the button bands and neckband. 1x1 Rib edgings are used throughout and are knit using a single yarn that will pool randomly.

If you are comfortable working from both the outside and inside of a center-pull skein, the suggested yarn does not need to be rewound because working with the center and outer strands of some balls will provide 7 strands. If it’s preferred to work with only one strand of yarn per ball, prepare your yarn by dividing it into 7 balls.