Navy Citrine
In my wardrobe there are standout pieces that define the outfit by their very presence and there are pieces that function as compliments to other things. Some of my Citrine cardigans are in the former category and others are in the latter, like this navy one.
Even if this one isn’t the sort of thing I’ll get jazzed to put on in the morning, it’s probably going to end up being one of the most worn items due to its usefulness as a neutral item; and owing to my propensity to choose bright and colorful fabrics, it’s never a bad thing to have a few items to balance everything out, I say!
I used view B of the pattern (gathered sleeve, gathered waist, buttons), but I made a slight modification to the sleeve as I was running a wee bit short on fabric and didn’t have enough to make the full width at the bottom of the sleeve. Instead, I traced the pattern between the view a (fitted) and view b (gathered) lines, to create a mid-width sleeve that was more modestly gathered, like this:
[ The solid line on the outside is the view B cutting line; the dashed line on the inside is the view A cutting line, and the red lines show approximately where I cut my pattern for these sleeves ]
The result is a cardigan with a little less Big Sleeve Energy than the original pattern piece, if you will.
It’s still enough of a gather that you can see that it has some extra room, and indeed I’m wearing it today over this puff-sleeved Jade tee, which I’ve never been able to do with other cardigans due to the sleeves being too fitted. I’ve made a fair amount of things this past year with puffy sleeves so I’m excited that I’ll be able to wear my Citrine cardigans over them without Bunchy Sleeve Syndrome, which is totally the worst, amiright? *champagne problems *
The other kinda weird thing about this cardigan is that I used two different fabrics for the main and the bindings - the main is Laguna jersey by Robert Kaufman, and the bindings are a 1x1 rib from Free Spirit fabrics. Both of these pieces of fabric have been in my stash for over 10 years. YES you read that correctly. And never once did I imagine putting them together until now. Wild, right?
The beautiful buttons came from my local yarn shop, Spun, which - hot button tip - you can find the best buttons at yarn shops!
The Citrine pattern for knits is now available in my shop!! Get it now and make yourself a cute cardi!