Sweater & Cardigan in King Cole Luxury Merino DK - 5244 - Downloadable PDF

Sweater & Cardigan Knitting Pattern – King Cole Luxury Merino DK (Pattern 5244)

This downloadable PDF knitting pattern from King Cole presents two classic garments — a sweater and a cardigan — both featuring a timeless raglan sleeve construction. Designed for intermediate knitters, the pattern covers a generous range of sizes from 81 cm to 107 cm (32 in to 42 in) chest circumference, making it suitable for a wide variety of adult figures. Both garments are worked in King Cole Luxury Merino DK yarn, delivering a refined finish with the natural softness and warmth that merino wool is celebrated for.

Garments Included

• Sweater: A pullover style featuring raglan sleeve shaping, offering a neat, fitted silhouette that suits both casual and smart-casual occasions.
• Cardigan: A front-opening version of the same design, sharing the raglan sleeve construction and overall aesthetic, with the added practicality of a button or open front.

Construction Technique – Raglan Sleeves

Both the sweater and the cardigan are built around a raglan sleeve design. In raglan construction, the sleeves extend all the way to the neckline in a diagonal seam, rather than joining at a traditional set-in shoulder point. This creates a smooth, diagonal line running from the underarm to the collar, which is both visually elegant and highly comfortable to wear. Raglan shaping is achieved through systematic decreasing on both the body pieces and the sleeve caps simultaneously, and is a hallmark technique in classic knitwear design. It is particularly well-suited to DK-weight yarns, where the stitch definition clearly shows off the shaping lines.

Stitches and Techniques Used

• Stocking Stitch (st-st): The most widely used knitting stitch, worked by knitting on right-side rows and purling on wrong-side rows. It produces a smooth, flat fabric on the knit side and is used throughout these garments for the main body and sleeves.
• Reversed Stocking Stitch (rev st-st): The mirror image of stocking stitch — the purl side is used as the right side. This creates a subtly textured, bumpy surface and may be used as a design detail or contrast element within the pattern.
• Garter Stitch (gst): Formed by knitting every row, garter stitch produces a ridged, reversible fabric. It is commonly used for borders, cuffs, and hems in garments like these, adding structure without curling at the edges.
• Pattern Stitch (patt): The pattern references a specific stitch pattern with its own tension measurement — 29½ stitches and 28 rows to 10 cm over pattern on 4 mm needles — indicating a textured or structured stitch repeat that forms part of the garment's visual interest.
• Increasing and Decreasing: Essential shaping techniques used throughout, including methods such as pass slipped stitch over (psso) and working stitches together (tog) or through the back of stitch (tbs) to create neat, directional decreases.
• Slipping Stitches (sl): Used in conjunction with decrease techniques to achieve clean, precise shaping, particularly along raglan lines.

Tension

The pattern specifies two tension measurements, reflecting the different stitch types used across the garments:

• 29½ stitches and 28 rows to 10 cm (4 in) over the pattern stitch on 4 mm needles.
• 22 stitches and 28 rows to 10 cm (4 in) over stocking stitch on 4 mm needles.

Checking tension before beginning is strongly recommended, as both measurements are critical to achieving the correct fit across the full size range.

Materials – Yarn and Needles

Both garments are designed to be knitted in King Cole Luxury Merino DK, a double knit (