Tutorial: Truffle Cardigan From the Ground Up- Part 1

Well, it’s February, and I do believe I owe you a tutorial on my Truffle Cardigan knock off. Thank you so much to all the people who have favorited it- you’ve made me really happy.

As I have told several people who’ve asked for the pattern, I feel weird publishing a pattern for a sweater that is so close to the original, despite all the rules of copyrights in clothing. But, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with showing people how I made the sweater. Hopefully my explanation will be clear enough that you can follow the guide lines and make up your own version of the Truffle Cardigan.

First thing’s first, Supplies:

I used 8 balls of Jo Sharp’s Silkroad Aran* Tweed, in Granary. I dug in to my stash for the crocheted ruffle trim, and came up with a ball of Rowan’s Wool Cotton in grey. You can see how very little of the Wool Cotton I actually used, so raiding the stash is best, I think. My version took the usual yarn requirements for a 38″ bust cardigan, so keep that in mind when you chose your yarn and size.

Other important items include: graph paper, pencil, measuring tape, crochet hook, and a circular needle that is long enough to let you try on the cardigan as you go. For the needles and crochet hook, I used the recommended needle size for the yarn (in this case, US size 7 needles, and a US E4 hook). You will also need about 7 buttons (any size, really) and one nice fancy button for the top of the collar, if you like.

Measuring:

I measure the same way you would for buying a garment: around the hips, around the waist, and around the bust. Then, I measure the height between each measurement and write that down as well. Check out this link for a pretty complete guide to sizing. You can also measure a favorite sweater or button down. The most important measurement for this will be around the hips, as you can try it on as you go and make sure that everything is working as it should.

Gauge, Ribbing, Cables, and Button Bands:

The next thing to do is to make a few swatches. One swatch should be to figure out the gauge for the ribbing at the bottom of the sweater (see photos at the top), one will be of the cable pattern you select for the front, and the other will be a test knit of the yoke pattern (more on that later). You will see that the cables should be worked over a different number of stitches than the ribbing for the same measurement, so keep that in mind.

In the picture above, you can see how I drew out my cable pattern on graph paper. I did this because I wanted a specific pattern, but I’m sure any kind of cable will look good. Drawing your own cable pattern is easy: using graph paper, mark off which stitches will be knit and which will be purled, and then lightly draw the curves you want on the paper. Next, outline the curves you’ve drawn to fit the grid of the graph paper and note where the cables will actually cross (you can see I used hash marks in mine).

After you have all your swatches lined up, figure out how wide you want the button band to be. Mine was 1.5 in, but yours may be different depending on the size of the buttons.

Knitting the Yoke:

The yoke is a little tricky, so I recommend knitting it first.

I chose a simple cable pattern for mine that was repeated twice. This is important because the shaping of the yoke comes from working one short row for every full row along the outside edge of the piece. Check out my diagram, which should hopefully clear things up. Knit this piece until it fits around your neck, with the cast off edge and the cast on edge the width of the button band apart. Depending on your gauge, you may find you need less or more short rows in order to keep the yoke from becoming either ruffly or too tight. Click here and scroll down for a good tutorial on knitting short rows with a wrap.

Knitting the Body:

When I make up a sweater, I always draw it out on graph paper to see where the decreases and increases should be (this is where the earlier measurements come in). The body of this sweater is knit all in one piece, so if you can remember where you want the sweater to hit your hip, then you could just as easily figure out the decreases and increases by trying it on and adjusting as you knit.

Using the measurement you’ve established for your hips and the ribbing gauge, figure out how many stitches you need to cast on for the back and two front panels of the cardigan. The cardigan is pretty tight fitting, so I used my actual body measurements, rather than allowing for ease. The formula for figuring out how much to cast on is basically the circumference of your hips minus the width of the button band.

Let’s write that out:

ribbing gauge (hip circumference - button band) = number of stitches to cast on for cardigan

Very fun. I haven’t done that in five years! Ok, moving on:

Once you cast on these stitches, work in the rib pattern until you hit a point where you either want to start decreasing (in which case do so, but at two evenly placed points where seams would be if this was a sweater you were sewing up), or you will want to switch to the cable pattern.

When you switch to the cable pattern, make sure that you adjust the number of stitches on your needles to fit the pattern. My cable pattern was one large motif flanked by two simple cables worked over six stitches. I only cabled on the front of the cardigan. I worked the back and sleeves in a seed stitch pattern.

After you’ve switched to the cables, keep on knitting- just remember to keep trying the cardigan on so that you can decrease as you get to the narrowest part of your waist, and then increase as you get to the bust. Stop when you get to where your arm holes should be.

So far, your sweater should look a little like this:

Next time: Arm holes and yoke curves, and a little bit of neck.

* Sorry, it was called to my attention that I wrote DK yarn, instead of Aran. I did make the sweater out of Aran weight wool, but since these are guidelines rather than instructions, you should be ok with whatever weight you chose!