Our Painted Yoke Cardigan for babies and toddlers is a wearable watercolor, with joyful brushstrokes of our self-striping Novella yarn against a warm white canvas.

Painted Yoke Cardigan | Purl Soho

If you’re new to sweater-knitting, starting in miniature is a great way to ease yourself in. The Painted Yoke Cardigan’s easy top-down construction and stockinette fabric makes the knitting a breeze. A note about sleeve length: a little extra length that you can cuff gives a handknit more milage for fast-growing kids!

Painted Yoke Cardigan | Purl Soho

The fun and whimsy of this sweater come courtesy of our Novella yarn. The Heirloom White is a solid color, but the rest of the collection is multi-colored “self-striping” yarn—a wonderfully simple way to bring playful colorwork to your Painted Yoke Cardigan. Two-row stripes break up Novella’s shifting colors into a painterly field, where a brushstroke of sky blue might meet a streak of grass green, followed by a dab of poppy red.

Painted Yoke Cardigan | Purl Soho

You’ll also use the self-striping color to work an I-cord that flows from color to color around the whole edge of the cardigan. The very last step is adding the button loops with a crochet hook and sewing down the buttons.

Painted Yoke Cardigan | Purl Soho

Aside from the self-striping fun, Novella is also a delight to hold in your hands and knit. Made in Italy, it is 92% extra fine merino, the softest grade of merino there is, plus 8% mulberry silk. The merino lends body and bounce to the yarn, while the silk adds luster to its surface and beauty to its drape.

Painted Yoke Cardigan | Purl Soho

Choose the color of Novella you want to dip into and pick up just one ball, plus 2 or 3 more in Heirloom White. We suggest looking at the swatches for each of the 9 self-striping colors on the product page for a clear look at how the colors will unfold in your Painted Yoke Cardigan. We chose Flower Patch for an exuberant garden of colorful blooms, spring leaves, and sunny sky!

Painted Yoke Cardigan | Purl Soho

Pattern designed and written by Purl Soho designer, Hiromi Glover. See even more of Hiromi’s work on her Instagram!

Story written by Andrea Lotz for Purl Soho.

Materials

Painted Yoke Cardigan | Purl Soho

NOTE: If you want to use Magic Loop for the Sleeves, you won’t need the 24-inch circular or double pointed needles listed above… Just stick with the 32-inch ones throughout!

GAUGE

25 stitches and 36 rows = 4 inches in stockinette stitch

SIZES

Newborn (6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 4 years)

  • Finished Chest Circumference: 18 (20¾, 21½, 22½, 24¼) inches
  • Finished Body Length from Bottom Edge to Underarm: 5 (5¼, 5¼, 6, 7½) inches
  • Finished Body Length from Bottom Edge to Top of Shoulder: 8¾ (9½, 10, 11¼, 13¼) inches
  • Finished Sleeve Length: 5½ (7¼, 7½, 9½, 11) inches

Samples: The sweater shown here is the 2-year size.

PATTERN

Painted Yoke Cardigan | Purl Soho

The Painted Yoke Cardigan Pattern is available for purchase as a PDF download only.

Share your progress and connect with the community by tagging your pics with #PurlSoho. We can’t wait to see what you make!

Painted Yoke Cardigan | Purl Soho
Painted Yoke Cardigan | Purl Soho

Learn About Novella + All Our Beautiful Yarns

The beauty of Novella is in its creative possibilities! A specially dyed self-striping yarn, Novella is always surprising to knit, with stripe following colorful stripe. And more… Its plies are two subtly different colors, adding depth and fascination to every stitch. Made in Italy, Novella is a sport-weight yarn, made with 92% extra fine merino wool, the softest merino there is, plus 8% mulberry silk. The merino lends body and bounce to the yarn (and fun to your knitting experience!), while the silk adds luster to its surface and also beauty to its drape. Combine more than one color, stripe it with a solid color, change directions… Novella is asking to play!

More Free Knitting Patterns

More Sport-Weight Yarns

More Yarns With Similar Fiber

Looking for more inspiration? Explore all of our knitting patterns (including tons of free knitting patterns) and knitting tutorials, buy one of our many knitting kits and yarn bundles, and shop for beautiful yarn. We have over 35 gorgeous natural fiber yarns in 100’s of magnificent colors, designed to bring integrity, beauty, and joy to your next knitting project and only available at Purl Soho!