Julie Hoover For Purl Soho: Stiger
Light but sometimes warm, casual but sometimes elegant, a summer cardigan has a lot of roles to fill, and surprising no one, Julie Hoover fills them all beautifully with her Stiger!
Julie knit this cardigan in flat pieces, then sewed them together, using the seams to give this cotton sweater the structure it needs. She picked up stitches up and around the opening to finish things off with a wide ribbed edge.
The sweater’s super simple stitch pattern uses basic decreases and yarn overs to create a light, open texture and a fabric with the breezy style befitting a summer’s day!
Our fingering-weight Picnic Cotton also keeps this cardigan light, and its 100% Pima cotton fibers mean that it is strong enough to last, even when it becomes your new summer go-to.
And the two-colored ingabbiato structure of Picnic Cotton adds a lovely marled look to the finished piece.
There are almost twenty gorgeous colors of Picnic Cotton, so pick one that will keep your summer sweet, and cast on!
Designed for Purl Soho by Julie Hoover. Currently based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Julie Hoover designs knitwear and makes yarn, for both her own personal label and others. Her work reflects a lifelong passion for clothing and textiles, and her view that knitting is a beautiful way of creating timeless fashion, a thoughtful mix of quality and creativity, intention and care.
Share your progress and connect with the community by tagging your pics with #PurlSoho, #PurlSohoBusyHands, #PurlSohoStiger, and #PurlSohoPicnicCotton. We can’t wait to see what you make!
Materials
- 8 (9, 10, 11) (12, 13, 14, 15) skeins of Purl Soho’s Picnic Cotton, 100% Peruvian Pima cotton. Each skein is 164 yards/ 50 grams; approximately 1280 (1420, 1585, 1720) (1890, 2045, 2225, 2435) total yards required. We used the colors Sugar Plum and Birch Wood.
- US 6 (4.0mm), 24-inch circular needles
- US 5 (3.75mm), 24-inch circular needles
- US 5 (3.75mm), 40-inch circular needles
- US 4 (3.5mm), 24-inch circular needles
- US 3 (3.25mm), 24-inch circular needles
- Stitch holders or scrap yarn
- A Stiger Pattern
GAUGE
22 stitches and 32 rows = 4 inches in Openwork Stitch, after blocking
SIZES
NOTE For help picking a size, please check out our Understanding Ease + Selecting Size Tutorial!
48¼ (52¾, 57, 61½) (65¾, 70¼, 74½, 79) inches
To fit actual chest circumference of 30-33 (34-37, 38-41, 42-45) (46-49, 50-53, 54-57, 58-61) inches, with approximately 15-18 inches of ease
- Finished Chest Circumference: 48¼ (52¾, 57, 61½) (65¾, 70¼, 74½, 79) inches
- Finished Hip Circumference: 48¼ (52¾, 57, 61½) (65¾, 70¼, 74½, 79) inches
- Finished Length From Shoulder To Bottom Edge: 22¼ (23, 24, 24¾) (25¾, 26¼, 27½, 28¾) inches
- Finished Length From Center Back Neck to Bottom Of Sleeve: 28¼ (29¼, 30½, 31) (32, 33, 33½, 34¾) inches
Sample: The sweaters pictured here are size 52¾ inches, worn with 18¾ inches of ease. This is slightly outside the intended ease, but we still love it!
PATTERN
The Stiger Pattern is available for purchase as a PDF download only.
Great sweater! If I want to make it longer style, is there more shaping I would have to do other than add more rows?
Hi Anne,
Thanks for writing in! You can probably just add more rows if you’re making this cardigan longer. It fits with 15-18 inches of positive ease (which is quite a lot!) so it’s likely wide enough to cover the hips already. If not though, you’d need to cast on a greater number of stitches, and work some decrease rows as you go to create hip shaping. But this probably isn’t necessary!
All the best,
Lili
The gauge doesn’t state the needle size. Should I use a size 6 because the body is a size 6?
Thank you
Hi Kathy,
Yes! We used size 6 needles to achieve the gauge listed in the pattern, so I’d recommend trying those first for your gauge swatch. You may need to size your needles up or down though, depending on what gauge you end up getting on the 6s!
All the best,
Lili
I can’t seem to get a consistent size on the yarn over stitches, one side of the knit 1 is definitely larger than the other. Am I doing something wrong here? Is there a solution for this?
Hi Cecilia,
I’m sorry to hear that you’re having trouble with the yo stitches! Would you be able to send a photo of your work to customerservice@purlsoho.com? That way, we’ll be able to better visualize what’s going on!
All the best,
Lili
lovely pattern! but I’d like to make it in a wool. Any
suggestions? Thanks so much!
Dudley Hartigan
Hi Dudley,
Thanks for reaching out! This pattern was designed for a fingering weight yarn, so many of our other fingering weight yarns would be wonderful choices. In particular, I think that Line Weight, Quartz, and Linen Quill would all work very well and display the openwork stitch pattern nicely!
All the best,
Lili
I’ve made quite a few swatches, I am not sure how to figure out my stitch count for gauge with the open work pattern; that is, where to start and end the “count.”. Thanks for your help.
PS The patter is lovely!!
Hi Diana,
Thanks for writing in! One thing you could do is add the 22 stitches you need to achieve gauge inside of some edge stitches. When measuring a more complex stitch for gauge, I tend to add 3 knit stitches to the beginning and the end of a swatch to help me better visualize what I am counting. To do this, you might find it helpful to place a marker after and before those extra stitches to help remind you to stay in pattern only between the markers. I hope this helps!
All the best,
Gavriella
I did a swatch as you suggested and it makes sense, so apologies for my second question. Thanks again!!
No problem Diana, we are always happy to help!