Tot Toppers

Alice's Tea Party Cardi

At long last, my very first for-yarn-company design has been published! Bijou Basin Ranch was amazing to work with, and if you haven’t tried knitting with yak, YOU ARE MISSING OUT.  It is worth every penny. New this spring to the BBR yarn line was COLOR.  Purple is my favorite color, so when my suggestion to use it for this cardigan was accepted I was thrilled. Click on any of the pictures below to purchase the pattern.

Two things define this cardigan.  First is the diagonal front closure.  I’ve wanted to do something like this for a while now.  I’ll probably do it again because I love how it turned out.  I really like for knitted designs to have something that sets them apart from what you’d normally see in a store.  I don’t always shoot for this, (or achieve it), but I think this one qualifies.

And the other accent is the lace detail repeated on sleeve, hem, and collar.  The leaves are twisty-turny and just what I was shooting for when I swatched.

The pictures I’ve shown you so far were shot in an interesting manner :)  I had a regularly scheduled session with Sara for some Tot Toppers, so we threw this in as well. She was the one who fit into this sample…not me.  So she fixed all the settings on her HUGE fancy camera for me, and I pushed the button.  I did ok I think, then again I didn’t have to do much at all!  But there is one thing that doesn’t show up in these photos…at the very last minute I decided to redo the buttonband on the sweater so that it extended all the way up the collar, and down to the bottom of the hem.  So here’s one of the photos that was taken at the REAL shoot showing the very final version, though it was still styled unbuttoned.

Here’s a snapshot of the original submission I sent to BBR last summer.

And below is the official “description” of the design, written by me, I really DO love Alice in Wonderland!  And I’m proud of the broad size range included. That was a heck of a lot of work, especially with because of the diagonal.

Pattern Description
Alice’s Tea Party is a delicate cardigan inspired by the latest rendition of Alice & Wonderland; where Alice maintains both her classic elegance, and a little bit of edge as she makes her way through Wonderland. The cardigan features a diagonal button closure and lace trim for that bit of whimsy.

The sweater is worked in one piece from the bottom up with shaping on either side; sleeves are knit in the round and attached seamlessly, raglan style. The bold colors and stitch definition of Bijou Bliss (yak and cormo) make the knitting a pleasure and the finished garment stunning. This project is geared toward an intermediate level knitter who is comfortable working with lace patterns and basic shaping techniques.

This pattern calls for 5 – 9 hanks Bijou Spun Bijou Bliss, 50/50 Yak/Cormo blend for busts 34″ through 56″

And I’ll leave you with Sara laughing at one of the many “that’s what she said” comments of the day…that big camera was just more than I could handle!