Escarpment

Escarpment Cardigan by Laura Chau

What is Being Made

The Escarpment is a seamless, top-down knit cardigan designed as an everyday layering piece. This garment features a flattering V-neck construction and hip darts for shaping. The cardigan is unfastened, intended to be worn open or pinned closed. It offers a range of finished bust sizes from 33 inches to 57 inches (82.5 cm to 144.5 cm), making it suitable for multiple fit preferences. The design is meant to be worn with 0 to 2 inches (0 to 5 cm) of ease at the bust for an accurate, comfortable fit.

Construction Techniques

Escarpment employs a seamless, top-down raglan construction method, which is a popular technique in modern knit garment design. The body is worked flat using straight needles, while the sleeves are worked in the round for efficiency and consistency. This mixed approach—flat body with in-the-round sleeves—allows knitters to manage shaping and stitch pattern placement effectively. Once the main body and sleeves are complete, bands are picked up and knit to finish the neckline and front edges. The hip darts are integrated into the flat body construction, providing tailored shaping without requiring seaming.

Stitches and Stitch Patterns

The primary stitch pattern featured in Escarpment is Elongated Garter Stitch, which appears on both the sleeves and bodice. Garter stitch is created by knitting every row (or every round when working in the round), producing a textured, reversible fabric with horizontal ridges. The elongated variation extends the height of each stitch, creating a more pronounced texture and a fabric with different proportions than standard garter stitch. This stitch pattern is beginner-friendly in execution but creates visual interest and dimension. The bands are knit using standard techniques, likely in garter stitch or a similar simple stitch to frame the garment edges.

Materials and Yarn Specifications

Escarpment is designed for worsted weight yarn, a medium-weight category ideal for everyday garments. The pattern is shown knit in Zen Yarn Garden Superwash Worsted, a 100% superwash merino yarn that offers durability, softness, and easy care. This yarn is available in skeins of 175 yards per 3.5 ounces (160 meters per 100 grams). Superwash merino is particularly practical for cardigans, as it resists felting and can be machine washed, extending the garment's lifespan. The yardage requirements will vary by size; the size 37.5 inches (94 cm) shown in the pattern requires a specific yardage amount based on the complete schematic. Standard knitting needles appropriate for worsted weight yarn (typically US 7–9 / 4.5–5.5 mm) would be used for the body and sleeves, with potentially smaller needles for the bands to create a neat, finished edge.

Difficulty Level

This pattern is rated as intermediate difficulty. While the construction techniques—top-down raglan and seamless knitting—are accessible to knitters with foundational skills, the inclusion of hip darts, V-neck shaping, and the coordination of working flat and in the round simultaneously requires intermediate-level understanding. Knitters should be comfortable with increasing and decreasing stitches, picking up stitches, and following a detailed schematic. The straightforward garter stitch pattern itself is easy to execute, but the overall garment architecture demands attention to fit and shaping.