Noosa Cropped Cardigan in Ella Rae Classic Sport - ER03-06 - Downloadable PDF

Noosa Cropped Cardigan in Ella Rae Classic Sport – Pattern Summary (ER03-06)

The Noosa Cropped Cardigan is a knitted garment pattern published by Knitting Fever Inc. and designed for use with Ella Rae Classic Sport yarn. Released as pattern reference ER03-06, this downloadable PDF provides instructions for a cropped, fitted cardigan worked in classic construction with ribbed bands and a clean stockinette body. The cropped silhouette makes it a versatile layering piece, suitable for a range of casual and smart-casual occasions.

What Is Being Made

The pattern produces a cropped cardigan with set-in sleeves, ribbed welts, and shaped armholes and shoulders. The garment is worked in separate pieces — back, fronts, and sleeves — which are then seamed together in the traditional flat-knitting construction method. Multiple sizes are included, as indicated by the stitch counts of 90, 98, and 116 stitches cast on for the back, accommodating a range of body measurements.

Construction and Techniques

• Flat knitting: All pieces are worked flat, back and forth in rows, rather than in the round.
• Ribbed band: The lower body begins with a 12 cm rib band worked on smaller needles before transitioning to the main body fabric.
• Needle transition: Knitters switch from 3.75mm needles for the rib to 4.00mm needles for the stockinette body, a standard technique for achieving a neat, slightly elasticated lower edge.
• Armhole shaping: Shaped with cast-off stitches at the beginning of rows followed by decrease rows, creating a clean set-in armhole. Specifically, 3(3,4) stitches are cast off at the beginning of the next two rows, followed by further decreases every third row.
• Shoulder shaping: Worked with cast-off rows at the beginning of right-side and wrong-side rows to create a sloped shoulder line, with 6(6,8) stitches cast off per shoulder row.
• Neck shaping: The front pieces include neck shaping worked simultaneously with or following armhole shaping, requiring careful row-by-row attention to maintain stitch counts.
• Seaming: As a traditionally constructed flat-knit cardigan, the finished pieces are joined by seaming, a technique that adds structure and durability to the finished garment.

Stitches Used

• 2x2 Rib (K2, P2): Used for the lower body band. The rib pattern alternates knit 2, purl 2 across the row, with the return row worked as purl 2, knit 2 to maintain the rib columns. This stitch creates the elasticated, textured band at the hem.
• Stockinette Stitch (St st): The main body fabric is worked in stockinette — knit on right-side rows, purl on wrong-side rows — beginning with a knit row after the rib band. Stockinette produces a smooth, flat fabric that drapes well and showcases the yarn's texture and colour.
• Decrease stitches: Used during armhole and neck shaping to reduce stitch counts and form the garment's fitted silhouette.

Materials

• Yarn: Ella Rae Classic Sport, a sport weight yarn from the Ella Rae brand, distributed by Knitting Fever Inc. Sport weight yarn is lighter than DK and produces a fine, neat fabric with good stitch definition, making it well suited to structured garments like cardigans.
• Needles: 3.75mm needles for the ribbed band and 4.00mm needles for the stockinette body sections.

Pattern Format and Source

This pattern is available as a downloadable PDF, published by Knitting Fever Inc., located at 315 Bayview Avenue, Amityville, NY 11701. It is part of the