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The Story:
Introducing the hottest new star of stage and screen, Kit Kittredge! You—and your doll—can dress up in a vintage hand-knitted cardigan, like the one in the new movie Kit Kittredge: An American Girl. Just pick up some classic one fifty and follow the attached pattern, and in no time you and your best doll will be dressed to the nines.
When we heard that a movie featuring the American Girl doll Kit Kittredge was in the making, we decided to jump on the bandwagon and come up with a CEY version of a sweater from the film. As it was my job to design the perfect KK sweater, I was bombarded with photos and articles about the movie. Good thing, because I had completely missed the craze and had never even seen one of these famous dolls in real life. After reviewing the pictures of scenes from the movie, I came up with my own version of a cardigan worn by the star, Kit. It is a lovely cardigan in a broken rib pattern with a larger rib at the borders. I decided to work the button and buttonhole bands as separate pieces to make the buttonhole spacing easier—knit the sweater, knit the button band, and then figure out where to put the buttonholes.
The Yarn:
classic one fifty — 100% fine merino
classic one fifty is composed of 6 strands of 2 plies spun together. The smallest plies are spun in one direction to form a Z-twist—the twist resembles the letter “Z”. Then 2 of these strands are plied together in the opposite direction creating an 2-ply strand with an S twist. Then 6 of these double plies are spun together again in the Z direction to form a smooth round yarn that begs to be worked in texture patterns.
For more information on plies and twists, see the article Why ply? [and how!] from Knitty.com.
The Stitches:
Many of CEY's patterns are written to use the Long-tail cast-on method. When using this technique, it is as though 1 row is worked while the stitches are cast on. The cast on row creates stitches that look similar to knit and purl stitches—with purl bumps on one side and knit stitches on the other.
If you work your first row as a right side row, you will see little purl bumps at the cast on edge on the right side. This is great when working a pattern stitch in garter or seed stitch. The purl bumps also help prevent stockinette stitch from rolling.
If you work your first row as a wrong side row, the knit stitches will show rather than the purl bumps. Most of CEY"s patterns are written this way. But, of course, you can decide for yourself which side you like better, and begin with the side you prefer the most.
Learn how to cast on using the Long-tail cast-on method.
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