Cortese Cardigan in Adriafil Soffio Plus - Downloadable PDF

Cortese Cardigan Knitting Pattern in Adriafil Soffio Plus – Free Downloadable PDF

The Cortese Cardigan is a beautifully structured knitted cardigan pattern designed for Adriafil's Soffio Plus yarn. Available as a free downloadable PDF, this pattern offers a sophisticated combination of textural stitch patterns that create a garment with visual interest and a flattering silhouette. The design features a shaped body with waist shaping, ribbed borders, set-in sleeves, and a classic open-front cardigan construction — making it a rewarding project for knitters with intermediate experience.

What Is Being Made

This pattern produces a women's cardigan worked in separate pieces — a back, a right front, a left front, and two sleeves — which are then seamed together. The finished garment features a ribbed lower border, a smooth knit stitch body panel through the mid-section, and a ribbed upper body and yoke. The construction includes shaped waist decreases and increases, armhole shaping, and angled shoulder shaping, resulting in a well-fitted, elegant cardigan.

• Garment type: Open-front cardigan with set-in sleeves
• Sizes available: 40 (42–44)
• Yarn required: 550 g of Adriafil Soffio Plus in colour no. 55

Materials Required

• Yarn: Adriafil Soffio Plus — an aran weight yarn — in colour no. 55, 550 g total
• Knitting needles: Size 3.5 mm (no. 3½) and size 4.5 mm (no. 4½)
• Tapestry needle for seaming and finishing

Adriafil Soffio Plus is an aran weight yarn, giving the finished cardigan a soft, substantial drape and warmth. Working with an aran weight yarn on 4.5 mm needles produces a fabric with good stitch definition, which is particularly important for showcasing the contrast between the knit stitch panels and the k2/p2 ribbing sections throughout this design.

Tension and Gauge

Achieving the correct tension is essential for this pattern. Two separate gauge swatches are required:

• Knit stitch on 4.5 mm needles: 19 stitches and 26 rows = 10 x 10 cm
• K2/P2 rib stitch on 4.5 mm needles: 33 stitches and 30 rows = 10 x 10 cm

Note that the ribbing gauge is significantly tighter than the knit stitch gauge, which is typical of ribbed fabrics. The pattern accounts for this difference by including deliberate stitch increases and decreases when transitioning between the two stitch patterns, ensuring the fabric width remains consistent throughout the garment.

Techniques Used

The Cortese Cardigan uses a range of classic knitting techniques that give the garment its structured, professional finish:

• Casting on — a standard cast-on method is used to begin each piece
• Waist shaping — decreases and increases are worked at the sides of the back and fronts to create a fitted silhouette; decreases are worked after 20 rows and then every 10 rows, three times, with corresponding increases when transitioning back to the ribbed upper body
• Stitch pattern transitions — the pattern moves between knit stitch and k2/p2 rib, with evenly spaced increases or decreases worked across a single row to compensate for the difference in gauge between the two stitch patterns
• Armhole shaping — set-in armholes are shaped by casting off stitches at the ends of rows in a stepped sequence every two rows
• Shoulder shaping — angled shoulders are formed by casting off groups of stitches every two rows, with the exact numbers varying by size
• Sleeve shaping — sleeves are worked with increases along the sides and shaped at the sleeve cap
• Seaming — pieces are joined