Cardigan & Sweater Knitted in King Cole Paradise Beaches DK - 5612 - Downloadable PDF

Cardigan & Sweater Knitted in King Cole Paradise Beaches DK – Pattern 5612

This downloadable PDF pattern from King Cole provides instructions for two classic children's knitwear designs: a cardigan and a sweater. Both garments are worked in King Cole Paradise Beaches DK yarn and are sized to fit children aged 2 to 11 years, covering chest measurements of 56–76 cm (22–30 in). Rated as an intermediate knitting project, this pattern is well suited to knitters who are comfortable with shaping techniques and reading multi-size instructions. For every King Cole pattern purchased, a donation is made to the Pink Ribbon Foundation.

Designs Included

• Cardigan – A shaped children's cardigan featuring raglan sleeve construction and a textured stitch body, worked in multiple pieces and seamed.
• Sweater – A matching pullover design sharing the same yarn, needle size, and stitch vocabulary as the cardigan, offering a coordinating wardrobe option.

Construction and Shaping Techniques

Both garments are knitted flat in separate pieces — back, fronts or front, and sleeves — before being joined. The defining structural feature of both designs is the raglan sleeve shaping, a classic technique where the sleeve and body pieces are decreased simultaneously along diagonal seam lines, eliminating the need for a traditional set-in armhole. Raglan shaping creates a smooth, comfortable fit across the shoulders and is particularly practical for children's garments.

Shaping throughout involves careful decreasing at raglan edges, worked on right-side rows at specified intervals — every right-side row, every fourth row, or every alternate row depending on the size being made. Neck shaping on the cardigan is worked by placing stitches on a stitch holder and then decreasing at both the neck edge and the raglan edge simultaneously, a technique that requires attention to two sets of instructions at once — hence the intermediate difficulty rating.

Stitches Used

• Irish Moss Stitch – The primary decorative stitch used across the body of both garments. Irish moss stitch is a four-row repeat that alternates knit and purl stitches in a shifting pattern, producing a dense, slightly textured fabric with excellent elasticity and drape. It lies flat without curling, making it ideal for children's knitwear.
• Stocking Stitch – Also used within the pattern, stocking stitch (knit on right-side rows, purl on wrong-side rows) produces the smooth, classic fabric familiar in most knitwear. Two separate tension measurements are given — one for Irish moss stitch and one for stocking stitch — reflecting that both fabrics appear in the finished garments.
• Rib Stitch – A knit 1, purl 1 rib is used for the cast-on edges and borders, visible in the detailed row-by-row instructions for the back. Rib creates a stretchy, neat edge that helps garments retain their shape at cuffs, hems, and button bands.
• Patt2tog – A decrease worked within the pattern stitch itself, maintaining the Irish moss stitch texture while reducing stitch count at shaping points.
• Yarn Forward (yfwd) – Listed in the abbreviations, this technique creates a decorative eyelet or is used as part of a lace or buttonhole detail within the pattern.

Tension

Achieving the correct tension is essential to producing a garment in the intended size. The pattern specifies two tension measurements, both obtained on 4 mm needles:

• 22 stitches and 32 rows to 10 cm / 4 in over Irish moss stitch
• 22 stitches and 28 rows to 10 cm / 4 in over stocking stitch

Knitters are advised to adjust needle size if their tension swatch does not match — using thinner needles if fewer stitches than stated are achieved, and thicker needles if more stitches are produced.

Materials

• Yarn: King Cole Paradise Beaches DK — a double knitting weight