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Although spring is in the air and the days are sunny, the mornings and evenings are still chilly, so what about a warm cardigan which you could also wear outside?

The main idea of the “Strandkilometer” (beach kilometer) design is to create a thick cardigan with a round yoke where the neck is a bit lower and more rounded on the front side than on the back – which means that you can integrate any overall stripe-based pattern, without any short rows disturbing the symmetry. This is achieved by working twice as many increases per row on the front than on the back, but only half as often – which creates different curves for the necklines on the two sides. Moreover, the front neck starts with a few stitches more, which will be compensated later.

So “Strandkilometer” is a complete pattern in itself, but it’s also a template for a round-yoke cardigan with stripes or colorwork, without the usual short rows in the back, but nonetheless with a deeper front neck.

(It is the same concept as used on the sister cardigan “Seemeile” which will be published a few days later, but calculated for a much thicker cardigan, with 17 sts on 10cm instead of 24 as for the “Seemeile”.)

Needles: Main needle size is 4,5mm; 3,75mm used for edges.
Gauge: 17 sts x 28 rows in “Rippled stripes”, a two-colored slip stitch pattern (17 sts x 25 rows in Stockinette).

Yarn: Approx. 980/ 1090/ 1200/ 1310/ 1420 m of an Aran weight yarn needed: 780/ 870/ 960/ 1050/ 1140 m of main color and 200/ 220/ 240/ 260/ 280 m of contrast color.

For my sample, I have used Biches & Bûches Le Gros Lambswool (100% wool, 192m/ 100g) in MC “Light Grey”, with leftovers of different similar wool yarns (including Sport weight yarns held double) for the rippled stripes.

The cardigan is worked top-down, in the following order:
• Step 1: Yoke: Work yoke, starting with the ribbed neck edge, followed by stripes in a slip stitch pattern, with regular increases (in different ways for back and fronts, to shape a deeper front neck).
• Step 2: Lower body: When you have reached the required yoke length and bust width, seperate into body and sleeves. Continue in stripes pattern, with only a few decreases and more hip increases. End lower body with ribbed hem.
• Step 3: Sleeves: Work sleeves in stripes pattern, ending with ribbed cuffs.
• Step 4: Buttonbands: Pick up stitches from front edges and add ribbed button-/ buttonhole bands.