791 Fiona Cardigan - Knitting Pattern for Women in Valley Yarns Valley Yarns Superwash

791 Fiona Cardigan – Knitting Pattern for Women by Kirsten Hipsky

The 791 Fiona Cardigan is a women's knitting pattern designed by Kirsten Hipsky and published by Valley Yarns. This intermediate-level cardigan is a beautifully structured, wearable layering piece featuring a classic silhouette with elegant cable accents along the front panels and raglan sleeve shaping. It is worked seamlessly from the top down, making it an excellent project for knitters who prefer minimal seaming and the ability to try on their work as they go. The pattern is available as a downloadable PDF.

What Is Being Made

The Fiona Cardigan is a women's button-front cardigan with raglan sleeves and a neat collar. It is designed to be worn in a range of finished chest measurements: 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, and 60 inches, with the sample shown in size 36 inches. The design is noted as a companion piece to the Frida Baby Cardigan, sharing a sweet and coordinated aesthetic. The finished garment features 8 buttons along the front opening, giving it a polished, classic look suitable for everyday wear.

Construction Techniques

• Top-down construction: The cardigan begins at the collar and is worked downward toward the hem, allowing the knitter to adjust length and fit as the project progresses.
• Seamless raglan shaping: Raglan increases are worked across all four sections — left front, right front, back, and both sleeves — simultaneously, creating smooth diagonal lines from the collar to the underarm with no shoulder seams required.
• Worked flat: Despite being seamless in its raglan construction, the cardigan body is worked flat (back and forth in rows) on circular needles to accommodate the open front button band.
• Cable accents: Decorative cables are incorporated along the front panels, adding textural interest and a refined, classic detail. A cable needle (cn) is required to execute these cable crossings.
• Stitch markers: Four stitch markers are used to delineate the raglan sections throughout the yoke construction, keeping the increases organized and accurate.

Stitches Used

• Stockinette stitch (St st): The primary stitch pattern used throughout the body and sleeves, creating a smooth, classic fabric. Gauge is measured in stockinette at 4.5 stitches and 7 rows per inch.
• Cable stitches: Cable patterns are worked on the front panels using a cable needle, creating twisted rope or braid-like textures that add visual depth to the otherwise clean stockinette fabric.
• Ribbing or collar edging: The collar is established with a specific cast-on across all sections — left front, left sleeve, back neck, right sleeve, and right front — and is worked with a structured edging stitch pattern on the wrong-side rows.
• Raglan increase rows: Paired increases are worked at each of the four raglan markers on right-side rows, gradually expanding the yoke from the initial cast-on of 72–88 stitches (depending on size) into the full body and sleeve stitches needed.

Materials and Yarn

The pattern calls for Valley Yarns Superwash, a worsted-weight yarn composed of 100% Extrafine Merino Superwash wool. Each skein contains 50g / 97 yards, and the sample was knitted in the colorway Burgundy. The yardage requirements range from 11 skeins for the smallest size up to 22 skeins for the largest, reflecting the generous sizing range the pattern covers. Extrafine Merino is prized for its exceptional softness against the skin, its natural elasticity — which helps the cables pop and the stockinette lie smooth — and its superwash treatment, which makes the finished cardigan machine washable and easy to care for.

Needles and Notions

• Needles: US size 7 (4.50mm) 32-inch circular needles for the body, plus double-pointed needles (DPNs) in the same size for working the sleeves in the round once