"Margot Cardigan" - Cardigan Knitting Pattern For Women in Willow and Lark Woodland and Ramble

Margot Cardigan by Sasha Kagan – Detailed Pattern Summary

The Margot Cardigan is a stunning, advanced-level women's knitting pattern designed by the celebrated British knitwear designer Sasha Kagan, part of the Best of British Collection from Willow and Lark. This pattern is available as a downloadable PDF and delivers a richly textured, colourwork-intensive cardigan that showcases Sasha Kagan's signature style — whimsical intarsia motifs of cats and dogs dancing through leaves, combined with dramatic giant cables. The result is a wearable work of art that will delight experienced knitters looking for a truly rewarding project.

What Is Being Made

The Margot Cardigan is a seamed, bottom-up women's cardigan featuring a sophisticated combination of intarsia colourwork and cable panels. It is worked flat in separate pieces and then seamed together. The finished garment includes set-in or shaped sleeves, a button band, and seven button closures. It is designed to fit bust measurements ranging from 81 cm (32 in) to 107 cm (42 in), with actual garment measurements of 101 cm to 126 cm, offering a comfortable, slightly oversized fit. The body length to the side neck ranges from 71 cm to 76 cm, and the sleeve seam measures 50 cm to 52 cm depending on size.

Design Details and Colourwork

What makes the Margot Cardigan truly special is its playful yet sophisticated intarsia motif design. Intarsia is a colourwork technique in which separate blocks of colour are worked using individual yarn bobbins or small yarn butterflies, allowing distinct, non-repeating motifs to be knitted directly into the fabric without carrying yarn across the back. In this pattern, individual cats and dogs are depicted amid leaves, creating a charming, illustrative quality that is a hallmark of Sasha Kagan's design aesthetic.

The pattern also references Fair Isle (stranded colourwork) as a required skill, indicating that some sections may involve carrying two colours across a row simultaneously to create repeating or blended colour effects. Together, these two colourwork methods — intarsia and stranded knitting — give the Margot Cardigan its rich, multi-dimensional surface texture and colour depth.

The recommended colourway uses six colours across two yarn bases:

• Cirrus 416 (M) – main colour, used in the largest quantity (6–8 balls)
• Marmalade 410 (A) – 2 balls
• Olive 412 (B) – 2 balls
• London Bus 409 (C) – 2 balls
• Hunter 414 (E) – 2 balls
• Charcoal 109 (D) – 2 balls (from Ramble)
• Snowdrop 101 (F) – 2 balls (from Ramble)

An alternative colourway is also provided, using shades including Black 403, Honeycomb 411, Thistle Bud 415, Antique Brown 407, Toffee 404, Limestone 102, and Truffle 107, giving knitters the freedom to personalise the palette.

Techniques Used

This is an advanced-level pattern that draws on a broad range of knitting techniques. Knitters should be comfortable with all of the following before casting on:

• Bottom-up construction – the cardigan is worked from the cast-on edge upward, piece by piece
• Worked flat – all pieces are knitted back and forth in rows, not in the round
• Seamed finishing – the completed pieces are joined using seaming techniques to assemble the final garment
• Cables – large, dramatic cable panels are a central design feature; cables are created by temporarily placing stitches on a cable needle and crossing them