Cactus Blossom Cardigan

Inspired by both fair isle knitting and Bohus Stickning, I had to play with some stranded color knitting after doing a lot of one-color projects. This is the perfect cropped cardi that will transition from warm weather to cold, or vice versa.

The body is worked back and forth in one piece from the bottom up, then divided at the bottom of the armholes. The shoulders are shaped using German short-rows, then the stitches joined using Three-Needle Bind-Off. The sleeves are worked in the round from the cuff up, then after beginning the sleeve cap, work progresses by working back and forth.

This is a piece geared for advanced-level knitters because there are multiple things going on at the same time - determining beginning/ending points for charts, shaping the neckline, dividing the front/back and shaping the armholes. The neckband is worked in corrugated rib, with a variation of the One-Row Buttonhole worked using both colors.