The pattern has been revised the 30th of Jan. 2024.

May is the month for lots of new flowers and leaves where I live. I can’t stop admiring them; I take a walk in the park or in the forest whenever I have a free minute. This sweet little vintage cardigan features lots of leaves and tiny flower buttons…

Construction
The cardigan is worked bottom up and seamlessly. The lower body is worked flat, starting from a small garter edge and a wave-patterned border, followed by stockinette and a leaf-pattern in the left and right front. Sleeves are worked in the round, starting from a small garter edge and a wave-patterned border, followed by stockinette and a centered leaf-pattern. Body and sleeves are joined at underarms and upper body is continued in one piece to neck. The upper body is shaped using raglan decreases. Sts are picked up for the button bands as well as for the neckline.

Sizes: 6 mo: 45cm/18” / 9 mo – 12 mo: 49cm/19.25 / 12 mo: 53.5cm/21” / 18 mo to 2 years: 57.5cm/22,5” / 2 - 3 years: 61.5cm/24-25” / 4 - 5 years_ 65cm/25.5”

Materials Yarn: I used the sport weight yarn “Royal Alpakka” from Dale yarn to work the cardigan. This alpaca wool comes in balls of 133m/145 yards. You need 2/3/3/3/4/4 balls of this specific yarn to work the cardigan.
Needles: 1 circular needle 3mm/US2.5 to work the lower and upper body. A set of dpns 3mm/US2.5 to work the sleeves. Straight (or circular) needles 3mm/US2.5 to work the button bands and the neckline.
Notions: 8 removable stitchmarkers, buttons 0.8cm/0.4” across, separate holders.

The pattern
All measurements are given in cm’s as well as in inches. All necessary stitch-counts are given. The leaf-pattern is both charted and written out row-by-row. (Please note that the simple wave-pattern is written out only). There is a schematic.

Knitting skills
The cardigan is not difficult to work, I would like to point out that the leaf-pattern of the body is worked in both RS and WS rows. The leaf-pattern of the sleeves are worked from RS only.
Knitting techniques: casting on, binding off, working lace, picking up sts. Underarm sts could be grafted or seamed. Abbreviations used: k, p, ssk, k2tog, yo, p2tog, p2togtbl, m1l, m1r.

Errata: Page 3, row 3 (RS): k3….
Page 5, round 6: sm, k2, k2tog, k4…..