422 Rose Tweed Cardigan - Knitting Pattern for Women in Valley Yarns Berkshire

422 Rose Tweed Cardigan – Knitting Pattern for Women in Valley Yarns Berkshire

The 422 Rose Tweed Cardigan is a women's knitted cardigan pattern designed by Kirsten Hipsky and published by Valley Yarns. This intermediate-level knitting pattern produces a classically structured, textured cardigan worked in a distinctive pattern stitch that creates a rich, dimensional fabric surface. The design is available as a downloadable PDF, making it immediately accessible for knitters ready to cast on.

What Is Being Made

This pattern produces a women's seamed cardigan with set-in or yoke-style construction, featuring a textured body, shaped sleeves, and a polished finished silhouette. The garment is worked in multiple pieces — a lower body, two sleeves, and a joined yoke — then seamed together for a structured, tailored fit. The pattern includes six sizes, with lower body cast-ons ranging from 112 stitches up to 180 stitches, accommodating a wide range of women's sizes. Sleeve stitch counts begin at 28 and increase up to 74 stitches depending on size, ensuring proportional shaping throughout.

Construction Techniques

• Bottom-up construction: Both the body and sleeves are worked from the cast-on edge upward toward the yoke, a traditional method that allows easy length adjustments before joining.
• Worked flat: All pieces are knitted flat, back and forth in rows, rather than in the round. This is consistent with the seamed finishing approach and suits knitters who prefer working on straight or circular needles in flat rows.
• Seamed finishing: The individual pieces — lower body and two sleeves — are set aside and later joined at the yoke, with underarm stitches placed on holders. Final seaming gives the cardigan its structured shape and clean edges.
• Stranded technique: The pattern incorporates stranded knitting, which involves carrying two or more yarns across a row to create color or textural effects. In the context of a tweed-style cardigan, this technique contributes to the characteristic speckled, woven appearance associated with tweed fabrics.
• Sleeve shaping: Sleeves are increased at both ends at regular intervals — every 4th to 12th row depending on size — building from a narrow cuff to a fuller sleeve cap width, ensuring a well-fitted arm from wrist to underarm.
• Yoke joining: After completing the body and sleeves to the underarm, stitches are distributed across right front, back, left front, and sleeves, with underarm stitches placed on holders for later grafting or seaming. This creates a seamless transition into the upper yoke shaping.

The Signature Pattern Stitch

The Rose Tweed pattern stitch is the defining textural element of this cardigan. It is a four-row repeat worked flat that creates a woven, tweed-like fabric with excellent body and visual depth. Understanding this stitch is key to achieving the intended look of the finished garment.

• Row 1 (WS): Knit across all stitches.
• Row 2 (RS): K1, then repeat p1, k1 in the row below to the last stitch, k1.
• Row 3: Knit across all stitches.
• Row 4 (RS): K1, then repeat k1 in the row below, p1 to the last stitch, k1.

The technique of knitting into the row below — sometimes called a brioche-adjacent or elongated stitch technique — pulls the working yarn down through the stitch of the previous row rather than the current one. This creates a layered, interlocked fabric that mimics the look of woven tweed. Combined with purl stitches offset between rows 2 and 4, the stitch produces a subtle diagonal texture that catches light beautifully and adds warmth and structure to the fabric.

Stitches Used

• Knit stitch (k) – used throughout the pattern stitch and as the base for all wrong-side rows
• Purl stitch (p) – alternated with