It Started with a Sketch: Maypop Hoodie
The summer months are here! And summer means it's time to dig out the lightweight garments you stuffed at the back of your closet last fall. Or maybe knit some new ones?
Last summer when I was working on the Irish Sea shawl — with that beautiful lace detail running down one side — I realized I wanted a garment in Meadow and to use that lovely lace panel again in another design. Put two and two together and the result is my latest pattern: Maypop Hoodie, a flowy top-down raglan cardigan with lace details. This lightweight cardi is perfect for the warmer days of spring and summer because it's knit in light fingering weight yarn at quite a loose gauge. For my sample I used The Fibre Co. Meadow in the deliciously hot pink colorway Cosmos.
The original sketch for Maypop Hoodie
The design was named after the maypop passion flower (Passiflora incarnata), a tropical plant that grows in vines and has intricate flowers ranging from red to fuchsia and purple. And like the plant, the hoodie has a lace vine that creeps up the entire back of the garment and into the hood. Or down, as it were, since the cardigan is worked from the top down.
In addition to the lace panel at the back, there are also zig-zaggy lace details on the fronts where the stockinette body transforms into the garter-stitch button bands. All lace patterns come with charted as well as row-by-row written instructions.
What's unusual with this design is that it starts with the hood. The hood is shaped with short rows, kind of like a massive short-row heel, and then worked down into the yoke. This way the lace panel running at the back flows uninterrupted throughout the garment: you don't have to work a provisional cast-on or pick up stitches for the hood.
Maypop Hoodie can be worn either buttoned up or, for a more casual look, with the i-cord belt tied around the waist. I'm always chilly so I prefer cardigans that can be closed properly to keep the breeze at bay. But I also wanted to include the tie option as well for those of you who are more hot-blooded or prefer open-front cardigans. You can of course choose to make either/or.
The cardigan is mostly stockinette but all the button bands, hem, and cuffs are worked in garter stitch. What's even better, all the bands, including buttonholes, are worked as you go so there's practically no finishing work at all!
A comment that came up a number of times in my end-of-year-2018 poll was that you want a wider size range in garments, larger sizes in particular. You'll be glad to hear I've added another size to my garment sizing template. Maypop Hoodie as well as all future garments come in 8 sizes, ranging from XS to 4XL (or 30" to 58" bust).
Get the pattern for Maypop Hoodie now on Ravelry. And do share your cardigans on Instagram! Use the hashtags #talviknits and #maypophoodie so I can find your lovely photos.
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