Baby Fair isle Cardigan

Baby Fair Isle Cardigan with Snowflakes

What is Being Made

This is a baby and toddler cardigan featuring a traditional Fair Isle snowflake pattern. Designed by Monica Russel, this downloadable knitting pattern is suitable for infants and toddlers in three sizes: 3-6 months, 6-12 months, and 12-18 months. The cardigan includes a button-front closure with three small buttons (approximately 1/2 inch in diameter) and is worked in a classic Fair Isle colorwork technique that creates a charming snowflake motif throughout the garment.

Garment Specifications

• Chest measurements: 50cm (3-6 months), 53cm (6-12 months), 57cm (12-18 months)
• Length: 26cm (3-6 and 6-12 months), 28cm (12-18 months)
• Sleeve length: 14cm (3-6 months), 15cm (6-12 months), 16cm (12-18 months)
• Difficulty level: Intermediate

Knitting Techniques and Stitches

This cardigan employs Fair Isle colorwork, a traditional technique where multiple yarn colors are carried across the back of the work to create intricate patterns. The pattern uses stockinette stitch (knit on right-side rows, purl on wrong-side rows) as the foundation for the Fair Isle design.

Key techniques include:

• Picot edge: Created using yarn overs and knit-two-together decreases to form a decorative, scalloped edge at the cast-on
• Short rows: The pattern incorporates short-row shaping, which involves turning the work mid-row and working back in the opposite direction to create contoured shaping without cutting the yarn
• Yarn overs (yfwd): Used to create decorative eyelets and increase stitches
• Decreases: Knit-two-together (k2tog) reductions are used for shaping and the picot edge detail
• Stranded colorwork: The Fair Isle snowflake pattern requires managing multiple yarn colors simultaneously, with unused colors stranded across the back of the work

Materials Required

This pattern uses DK weight yarn (light worsted), which knits to a tension of 20 stitches and 27 rows over 10 x 10cm (4 x 4 inches) in stockinette stitch on 4.5mm needles.

Yarn quantities by color:

• Yarn A (Lilac 2511): 2 balls (3-6 months), 3 balls (6-12 months), 3 balls (12-18 months) — approximately 120m/131yds per 50g ball
• Yarn B (Raspberry 2514): 1 ball all sizes
• Yarn C (Duck Egg 2507): 1 ball all sizes
• Yarn D (Cream 00121): 1 ball all sizes

Needles:

• A pair of 3.50mm knitting needles (used for the picot edge cast-on)
• A pair of 4.5mm knitting needles (used for the main body and Fair Isle colorwork)

Notions: 3 small buttons, approximately 1/2 inch in diameter

Pattern Construction

The cardigan is constructed beginning with the back piece. The pattern starts with a cast-on using the smaller 3.50mm needles and Yarn A (Lilac), with stitch counts of 61 stitches (3-6 months), 65 stitches (6-12 months), or 69 stitches (12-18 months). The first four rows are worked in stockinette stitch using Yarn A as a solid-color foundation. Row 5 creates the picot edge detail using yarn overs and decreases, which will later be folded to create a decorative turned edge. After completing the picot edge setup, the needles are