Babe in the woods

Babe in the Woods Cardigan by Melissa LaBarre

What is Being Made

The Babe in the Woods is a baby cardigan pattern designed by Melissa LaBarre, available in four sizes ranging from 6-12 months through 2T. This garment is specifically tailored for infants and toddlers, featuring a classic cardigan construction with button closures for easy dressing and undressing of young children.

Craft and Primary Technique

This is a knitting project worked primarily in the round using circular needles, with some sections worked flat. The cardigan employs intermediate-level knitting techniques suitable for crafters with foundational knitting experience who are ready to tackle more complex stitch patterns and shaping.

Stitches and Pattern Details

The Babe in the Woods cardigan features a distinctive leaf pattern as its primary design element. This lace-inspired motif is created using fundamental knitting stitches including:

• Knit (k) and purl (p) stitches for the foundational fabric
• Yarn overs (yo) to create the openwork design characteristic of lace patterns
• Decreases including ssk (slip, slip, knit) and k2tog (knit two together) to shape the leaf motifs and maintain stitch count
• Kf/b (knit front and back) for strategic increases that shape the garment

The leaf pattern repeats across 15 rows, creating an elegant textured design that adds visual interest while remaining appropriate for delicate baby garments. The pattern alternates between right-side rows featuring the decorative yarn overs and decreases, and wrong-side rows worked in purl, which allows the lace motif to stand out clearly.

Materials and Gauge

This cardigan is worked in DK weight yarn, specifically The Plucky Knitter Sweater yarn in the color "oz." The pattern requires 2 skeins for all sizes, with each skein containing 270 yards, providing sufficient yardage for the complete garment across the full size range.

Needles required include a US 6 (4mm) 29-inch circular needle for the main body and a set of US 6 (4mm) double-pointed needles (dpns) for working smaller circumferences, such as sleeves or ribbing. The specified gauge is 22 stitches and 28 rows over 4 inches in stockinette stitch, which is essential for achieving the correct finished measurements for proper fit on baby sizes.

Additional notions include three ¾-inch buttons for the cardigan front closure, a blunt needle for weaving in yarn ends, four stitch markers to track pattern repeats and shaping, and scrap yarn for holding stitches during construction.

Construction Method

The cardigan begins with a cast-on of 65 to 73 stitches depending on size, worked flat rather than in the round. The pattern includes a garter stitch edge created by knitting 5 to 7 rows, followed by a strategic increase row using the kf/b technique that nearly doubles the stitch count to 97 to 109 stitches. This increase row is followed by a single purl row before transitioning into the 15-row leaf pattern repeat, which forms the primary visual design of the finished cardigan.