Growing Garden Cardigan. Photo © Purl Soho
Growing Garden Cardigan is a free baby and toddler
knitting pattern designed by Sandi Rosner for Purl Soho.
This cheerful top-down cardigan combines a simple background color with
little rows of colorful textured dots that look like tiny flowers
scattered across the fabric.
The clever part is the colorwork: simple slip stitches mean you work with
only one color per row. That makes this little cardigan
an inviting project for knitters who want to try colorwork without
juggling multiple yarn colors at the same time.
Growing Garden Cardigan Pattern Details
- Designer: Sandi Rosner
- Publisher: Purl Soho
- Craft: Knitting
- Category: Baby and toddler cardigan
- Pattern availability: Free
- Sizes: Newborn, 6–12 months, 12–18 months, 18–24 months
- Yarn weight: DK / Light Worsted
- Suggested yarn: Purl Soho Cotton Chirp DK and Cotton Chirp DK Minis
- Needles: 4 mm (US 6)
- Gauge: 22 stitches and 40 rows = 4 inches in Dotted Stripe Pattern
- Construction: Top down
- Techniques: Slip-stitch colorwork, knitting flat and in the round
- Language: English
Easy Slip-Stitch Colorwork
The Growing Garden Cardigan gets its playful appearance from Purl Soho's
Dotted Stripe Pattern. Small contrast-color bumps appear
in staggered rows against the main background color, creating the
cardigan's garden-inspired look.
Instead of traditional stranded colorwork with two yarns worked across
the same row, this design uses slip stitches so that you only need to
work with one color at a time. Purl Soho specifically recommends the
project as a gentle introduction to colorwork knitting.
Sizes from Newborn to 24 Months
The free pattern includes four sizes:
Newborn, 6–12 months, 12–18 months and 18–24 months.
Finished chest circumferences are approximately
17 (19½, 21, 23½) inches, with about 1–2 inches of
positive ease built into the sizing.
This range makes the pattern suitable for everything from a tiny
newborn cardigan to a colorful sweater for an active toddler.
Yarn and Needles
The original cardigan uses Purl Soho Cotton Chirp DK
for the main color and Cotton Chirp DK Minis for the
contrasting colored dots.
Both are 100% Peruvian Pima cotton yarns in the DK / Light Worsted
range. The main color requires approximately
230 (300, 380, 445) yards, depending on size, plus
smaller quantities of four contrast colors.
The pattern uses 4 mm (US 6) circular needles and
double-pointed needles, or the needle size required to achieve the
specified gauge.
How the Growing Garden Cardigan Is Constructed
The cardigan is worked from the top down. You begin at
the collar and work the yoke and body flat in one piece.
At the armholes, the sleeve stitches are placed on hold while the body
continues down to the lower edge. The held sleeve stitches are then
returned to the needles and the sleeves are worked in the round down
to the cuffs.
Garter-stitch details at the collar, hem, cuffs and button bands provide
a simple textured frame around the colorful dotted stripes.
A Great Way to Play with Color
The small amounts of contrast yarn required for the dotted stripes make
this design particularly fun for experimenting with color combinations.
You can keep the background neutral and choose bright accents, or use a
colorful main shade with softer contrasting dots.
Because each contrast color appears in relatively small amounts, the
design may also be useful for compatible DK-weight leftovers, provided
you can maintain the pattern gauge and choose yarns suitable for the
finished garment.
What You'll Need
- DK / Light Worsted yarn for the main color
- Four small quantities of contrasting DK yarn
- 4 mm (US 6) circular knitting needles
- 4 mm (US 6) double-pointed needles or your preferred method for small circumferences
- Stitch holders or scrap yarn
- A stitch marker
- 4 or 5 small buttons, depending on size
Get the Free Growing Garden Cardigan Pattern
The complete Growing Garden Cardigan by Sandi Rosner
is available free from the original publisher, Purl Soho.
Their pattern page includes the full instructions, sizing, materials,
photos and additional knitting guidance.
Get the Free Growing Garden Cardigan Pattern at Purl Soho
Pattern availability was checked when this article was updated.
Availability on external websites may change over time.
