Bengt Cardigan - Knitting Pattern For Men in MillaMia Naturally Soft Merino by MillaMia

Bengt Cardigan – Knitting Pattern for Men by MillaMia

The Bengt Cardigan is a men's knitting pattern by MillaMia, worked in MillaMia Naturally Soft Merino yarn. Inspired directly by a vintage 1970s design worn by the MillaMia duo's own father for over 50 years, this pattern invites knitters to create a genuine heirloom-quality fair isle cardigan. The result is a classic, colourwork-rich zip-front cardigan with long sleeves, designed to be worn season after season.

What Is Being Made

This pattern produces a men's zip-front fair isle cardigan featuring stranded colourwork throughout. It is sized to fit a range of chest measurements and comes in four sizes:

• To fit bust/chest: 82–87 cm (32–34 in), 92–97 cm (36–38 in), 102–107 cm (40–42 in), 112–117 cm (44–46 in)
• Actual chest measurement: 96 cm, 106 cm, 116 cm, and 125 cm respectively
• Length to back neck: 57 cm, 59 cm, 61 cm, and 63 cm
• Sleeve length: 51 cm (20 in) across all sizes

The finished garment features a zip closure at the centre front, making it a practical and stylish everyday piece. The pattern is rated Improving (intermediate skill level), making it well suited to knitters who have moved beyond the basics and are ready to tackle stranded colourwork and garment construction.

Techniques Used

The Bengt Cardigan employs several key construction and finishing techniques:

• Bottom-up construction: The garment is built from the lower edge upward, which is a traditional approach that allows knitters to adjust length easily before committing to the armhole shaping.
• Worked flat (seamed): Pieces are knitted flat on straight or circular needles and then seamed together, giving the cardigan a structured, tailored finish characteristic of classic knitwear.
• Stranded colourwork (fair isle): The defining feature of this cardigan is its stranded colourwork, in which two or more yarn colours are carried across each row to create traditional fair isle motifs. This technique requires managing yarn tension carefully to keep the fabric smooth and even.
• Zipper insertion: Rather than a button band, the cardigan uses a zip at the centre front. The pattern includes detailed hints for inserting the zip correctly — leaving the teeth exposed, tacking each side in place while matching the colourwork pattern, stab stitching from the right side, and catching the zip tape on the wrong side for a neat finish.

Stitches Used

As a stranded fair isle garment, the Bengt Cardigan relies on fundamental knitting stitches and techniques:

• Knit and purl stitches form the foundation of all flat-knitted sections, including ribbing for cuffs and lower edges.
• Stranded colourwork stitches involve working knit stitches while carrying a second (or third) colour loosely across the wrong side of the fabric, creating the characteristic fair isle floats.
• Seaming stitches are used during finishing to join the front, back, and sleeve pieces together neatly.
• Stab stitch is specifically referenced in the pattern for securing the zip from the right side of the work.

Materials

The pattern is designed for MillaMia Naturally Soft Merino, a sport weight yarn. This yarn is a 100% merino wool, known for its softness, stitch definition, and suitability for colourwork due to its smooth, consistent texture. The sport weight gauge allows the fair isle motifs to be rendered with excellent clarity and detail. Multiple colours of MillaMia Naturally Soft Merino are required to achieve the stranded colourwork design. The pattern notes that suggested alternative colourways are included, giving knitters flexibility in their palette choices. Appropriate knitting needles for sport weight yarn are required; both flat needles and potentially circular needles may be used given the flat, seamed construction method.