Miss 3 had asked me to knit a “Gabby (playhouse) cardigan”
After trying to find a pattern and searching for a decent pic of the cardigan she wears and a lot of pfaffing about I did my own thing.
The cardigan/ bolero is knitted with 2 strands held together and knitted in half fisherman’s rib throughout.
Fisherman’s rib tends to grow in width and takes a lot more rows to get the length, so I cast on with about a third less stitches than I would need to knit the back (around 68 stitches) then I increased at the beginning of every row until I felt it was about the right width for the fronts as well, divided for the armholes and knitted straight along the front edges, cast off around 8 stitches for the front neck and did a few decreases for the neck shaping, keeping it all very simple.
3 needle bind off on the shoulders. Picked up around the armholes and knitted down for the sleeves and put a small 1x1 rib on the bottom (some pics show a basque others do not. Picked up around the neck for a simple hood. I increased but in hindsight I really didn’t need to as the FR would have provided enough fullness. Picked up stitches all the way around and knitted a 1x1 band all the way around.
Pics show white cords and pink large-ish beads on the ends. I had white cord in my sewing stash and found 4 small fuchsia buttons I sewed on the ends to enclose the end of the cord and cover both sides. Poked the other end through the band and stitched it down.
I notice now it’s finished that I have mixed up my right and wrong sides, but little Miss 3 won’t notice, and neither will her parents unless I tell them. (Fellow knitters probably would)
Cashmere/cotton will wash well and shouldn’t shrink in the wash when her father does the laundry! and is more than likely a better quality than the original I took inspiration from.