Women Sleeveless Cable Sweater in Bergere de France Coton Fifty - 67514-18 - Downloadable PDF

Women's Sleeveless Cable Sweater in Bergère de France Coton Fifty – Pattern 67514-18

This intermediate-level knitting pattern from Bergère de France guides you through creating a stylish women's sleeveless cable sweater, worked in the brand's own Coton Fifty yarn in the colourway Écarlate (ref. 23165). The design is available in four sizes — S, M, L, and XL — making it a versatile project suitable for a range of figures. As a downloadable PDF, the pattern is immediately accessible and includes full chart-based instructions, abbreviation guides, and tension information to help knitters achieve a professional finish.

What Is Being Made

The finished garment is a sleeveless sweater — sometimes called a tank top or slipover — featuring prominent cable panels across the body. The sleeveless silhouette makes it an ideal layering piece or a standalone warm-weather top. The construction includes a distinctively shaped yoke, which is begun halfway across the Back section and worked using short row shaping for a smooth, tailored fit across the shoulders and neckline.

Construction and Techniques

The pattern uses a combination of knitting techniques that place it firmly in the intermediate difficulty category. Knitters should be comfortable reading stitch charts, working cable manoeuvres with a cable needle, and executing short row shaping before beginning this project.

• Short row shaping is used during the yoke construction, which begins partway across the Back. This technique allows fabric to be built up selectively, creating curves and angles without binding off, and is essential for achieving a well-fitted shoulder and neckline area.
• Cable knitting forms the decorative centrepiece of the design. Cables are created by temporarily placing stitches onto a cable needle (cn) and crossing them over one another to produce twisted rope-like columns of texture.
• The pattern specifies both left cross (Cl) and right cross (Cr) cables, allowing for symmetrical or directional cable arrangements across the fabric.
• A 6Cl cable is worked by slipping 3 stitches onto the cable needle and holding them at the front of the work, knitting the next 3 stitches, then knitting the 3 held stitches from the cable needle — producing a 6-stitch left-leaning cable cross.
• A 12Cl cable follows the same principle on a larger scale, slipping 6 stitches onto the cable needle held at the front before completing the cross — creating a bold, wide cable panel.
• An Astrakhan stitch is also referenced in the tension/gauge section, suggesting a textured stitch pattern is incorporated into the design alongside the cables. Astrakhan stitch creates a looped, bouclé-like surface texture and adds visual interest beyond the cable columns.
• A 3 stitches into 1 increase technique is used: knit 1, purl 1, and knit 1 all into the same stitch before dropping it from the left-hand needle — a method that neatly triples the stitch count at a given point and is often used in textured or lace-adjacent stitch patterns.
• Slip 1 purlwise with yarn at back is specified, a technique commonly used to create neat selvedge edges or as part of a textured stitch pattern, ensuring clean, even edges throughout the work.

Stitches Used

• Cable stitch — including 6-stitch and 12-stitch left cross variations
• Right cross (Cr) and left cross (Cl) cable manoeuvres
• Astrakhan stitch — a looped, highly textured stitch pattern
• 3 into 1 increase (k1, p1, k1 into the same stitch)
• Slip 1 purlwise with yarn held at back
• Standard knit and purl stitches as the foundation throughout

Tension and Gauge

Achieving the correct tension is emphasised as essential to a successful