Last week, you got a look at the cardigan I’m sharing with you today. Aaand here it is again! I actually finished this two months ago, but had to wait to share it until I finished and photographed the dress I sewed to wear with it!
This is actually the second time I’ve knit that cardigan pattern. The pattern is called Ten of Hearts, and is a vintage pattern from the 1950s that you can buy from Bex‘s Etsy shop. (My Ravelry project page for it is here, by the way.)
The first version I knit was about a year and a half ago, and it’s gotten a lot of love from me since I finished it. It’s this one, knit in Madelinetosh Vintage in Tart.
For some reason, I’ve been having several months of realizations about important style and fit things about myself. Sometimes it’s about what I like, sometimes it’s about why I like it, and sometimes it’s about why I like it with something else.
It turns out, cardigans that are the length of my original Ten of Hearts cardigan are great on me with pants, great with pencil skirts…. and really awful with full skirts or dresses.
While I love that cardigan and I wear it quite a bit, sometimes I really wish it was just a couple of inches shorter. And so I knit one!
I’m still trying to use yarn from my stash when I can, and I had the perfect red in Wollmeise DK. But the pattern is for worsted weight. So after a bit of math, I worked out that I really just needed to add some stitches on either side of the lace panels on the fronts and back, and it would be suitable for dk weight yarn.
Like my first version, I changed the back from plain to the hearts and lace charts mirrored, which I think looks really neat.
Just for the hell of it, I changed the neckline, too. Instead of knitting a plain crew neck, I offset the neckband slightly from the button bands. I really like how that looked on my 6×4 chartreuse cardigan (which I modeled after a vintage cardigan I have) so I did the same for this one.
I also did something for this cardigan I don’t always do. In fact I usually don’t! I faced the button bands with a vintage ribbon. This helps prevent gaping when you button up cardigans with negative ease—ones that are smaller than the fullest part of your bust at that point. I don’t tend to actually button my cardigans up very often, and so I don’t usually bother. But this time I did, picking a pretty vintage woven ribbon with roses and leaves. It’s a fun pop on the inside!
If you’d like to try it yourself, Lauren has a good tutorial on it. I do it the same way, sewing the buttonholes by machine. (And worth mentioning, you don’t need to tack the sewn buttonholes to the buttonholes you make in your knit band, you just line them up and the buttons make it through both together just fine. I wondered about this for a long time before I did it the first time.)
If you don’t own a sewing machine, you can follow my tutorial for how to work buttonholes by hand, and use that to make the buttonholes in the ribbon.
I love the way the ribbon looks on the insides! (I didn’t photograph it, but the ribbon is behind both bands.) The photo below is also a good closeup of the vintage buttons I used. I actually have a matching belt buckle blank that I was going to use to sew a belt for my checked dress, but just couldn’t bring myself to make one after finishing the dress (and mostly, after inserting that zipper twice). Maybe someday. 🙂
And while I left the collar of my dress in so you could see the neckline in the photos above, I do think it’s a pretty fetching combo with the collar out!
Overall, it’s a cardigan in my favorite color, in a length that I can wear with dresses and skirts. I don’t typically knit things multiple times but I love this pattern so much, I may just be inclined to knit another one sometime! Probably not in a shade of red again, though. 😉
Now, off to finish up my birthday dress this week and a couple of other things… how it is snowing outside when it’s nearly my birthday is beyond me. Being an April baby I’m used to having crappy weather around my birthday, but Mother Nature, this is pushing it!
Hi Tasha!
I really love that cardigan and I can totally relate to wanting the same cardigan i two lengths. I just wanted to ask you a vintage wardrobe related question: Do you ever knit in cotton or cotton/wool blends? I find it hard to find vintage cardigans i cotton for spring and summer, but I haven’t actually tried to knit one, so I am hoping for some inspiration.
I usually dislike the feel of cotton yarn, so I nearly never knit with it, I’m afraid! I’ve knit with KnitPicks Comfy, which is a cotton/acrylic blend, and that wasn’t bad. I don’t think I’ve tried any cotton/wool blends, however. For what it’s worth, I do find that Wollmeise dk and the fingering weight are both much more cotton-like in feel when you wear them–cooler than a normal merino, and smooth feeling, in my personal opinion. So I end up wearing a lot of my dk weight cardigans well into Spring and Fall! Not so much in summer, obviously… I rarely wear anything other than machine-knit cardigans in the summer. Fingering weight–even in cotton–would feel too much for me, usually. Hoping to sew some though! 😉
its gorgeous and I love the length and the combo with the dress
Thank you! 🙂
This is amazingly lovely. I love the heart pattern, and I especially love the detail of the fancy floral ribbon you used for the button facing. It’s the little ‘hidden’ details like that that can make a garment feel extra special.
Thank you! It’s definitely a fun little hidden detail, isn’t it! 🙂
This is so utterly gorgeous. It’s like the cardigans my mother drew for my paper dolls when I was a kid. It’s like the archetype of cardigan. Perfect and gorgeous, really. And there couldn’t be a better shade of red!
That sounds so sweet that your mom did that when you were a kid! And thank you on the cardigan. 🙂
This is so cute! Love the new cardigan, goes so well with that marvellous dress – which have awesome collar by the way!
Thank you! 🙂
Tasha, I LOVE it. Well, both of them. I try so hard to follow a pattern for knitting a sweater, but don’t have very good luck. I have done some very basic ones for children but that’s it. I’d be happy to knit both versions just plain, without the hearts, if that would be easier. I also love the ribbon facing. So pretty, just like you would find on a vintage handknit. Great job.
Thank you so much! Keep at it, sometimes it takes awhile for things to “click”. 🙂
The details on this are just gorgeous ;o) Those buttons!
Thanks! I really love those buttons too. 🙂
I see why you waiting until the dress was done before photographing the cardigan – they’re so fabulous together! And the ability to just make a cardigan that’s the perfect length to suit what it’s going on top of is reason no. 1673 that I will one day learn to knit.
There’s no time like the present to learn to knit! 😉
The cardi looks lovely with your lovely dress! (and it’s my color of red) Great job, love the hearts on the back as well!
My color red, too! 😀 Thank you!
Really lovely! Did I miss button details?
Thanks! Yep, I mentioned they were vintage buttons. 🙂
Ooo it’s pretty! I love both versions equally, I think. I really love the changes you made to the collar on this one though – definitely going to keep that in mind for future sweaters!
Thanks! Yeah, I really think that’s a fun variation on a typical crew neck!
Everything is just perfect. You truly have amazing taste and talent. I want to be you someday.
Oh gosh, that’s really sweet of you to say! Thank you. 🙂
Fabulous job. I love the touch of the old style ribbon finish. You seem to have adjusted the waist a bit from the other pattern. I like the way the waist looks nipped in. Very fifties. Did you make a change?
P.S. My mother made a sweater with the same fit and sleeve length in the late fifties. Also had a grosgrain ribbon facing on the buttonbands. Unfortunately it is too small for me to wear.
You look gorgeous in both the cardigan and dress. Thanks for the tip about facing the button bands and it preventing the dreaded gaping! I’ve used petersham ribbon to line the inside zipper band on my daughter’s knitted cardigan, but never thought about using it on a buttoned cardie. Inspiration!
Tasha, I love your cardi! The dress is wonderful too! The match you got on the seams is so perfect. Great looking ensemble!
This is rillllly cute! I might just have to make one or ten for myself!
xo
kittee
I love that cardigan pattern, but unfortunately vintage patterns are always too small for me 🙁 It’s a beautiful cardigan and looks lovely on you.
You have done a really wonderful job with this. (Great dress, too.)
Was it hard to figure out how to put the pattern on the back? It looks outstanding and I want to try to do something fancy with the back, too. It is so much nicer.
If you look carefully at the front vs. the back, basically all I did was take the charts for the front (left and right) and placed them in the same location on the back (so the lace panel falls along my side and up to my shoulder). So the stockinette stitches between the hearts are what remains for the number of stitches for my size, if that makes sense!
Yes, it makes total sense. I was just letting it panic me. But now I have a copy of the pattern and so can sit down and read it. Thanks for your time.
I try so hard to make cardigans and ugh.. the Myrna is my nemesis.. lol.. looks great Tasha.
Andi Sutherland’s Myrna? Did you see the note on the Ravelry site? (ravelry.com /patterns/library/myrna-3) “The row gauge was originally listed incorrectly. A second version of the pattern was created to match the previously listed gauge so the pattern now comes with two different files.” This might account for your trouble. Check it out, okay, jessyka?
I adore your blog and all of the things you make! You are inspiring me to learn to knit! I would love to be able to make one of your gorgeous sweaters…or sew as fabulously as you do.