Bambasala cardigan

Sheepy wool, sheepishly happy knitter… it’s still all about the YARN!

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I have enjoyed knitting every single stitch of my Bambasala cardigan.
The yarn, Gotland Aran from Little Grey Sheep, is wooly, sheepy, warm, soft, lofty, has just right amount of comforting halo, and is dyed in gorgeous muted colours by Emma at the farm.
Bambasala is the latest addition to the growing Simple Ziggurat family. It’s a basic no-frills cardigan worked up in Aran weight yarn on 5 mm needles – a quick knit in other words. Everything is, as usual, built in/knitted as you go.

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The sample is knitted in size 38 and requires less than 500 grammes in all if knitted in just one colour.
I of course wanted two … and also chose to make the green block larger than just 1 skein.
Wherefore the pictured cardigan requires 4 skeins of Natural Grey and 2 skeins of Lemoncello.

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No frills is not exactly right.

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My frill is the double-knitted pockets that are knitted into the body of the cardigan as you go.
They are admittedly a bit fiddly but rather elegant, and were simply fun to figure out.

For the pocket linings I used the Gotland 4ply Colour Work (mini) skeins from Little Grey Sheep – yarn held double.
A different colour for each pocket.
One could of course knit the linings with one of the main colours.

Fear not, the pattern has instructions for double-knitted but also for easier to knit inline pockets. The latter will work just as well and look equally good. (They are also a tad sturdier due to their double front wall – the double-knitted pocket has only a single layer of fabric there).
You can find a photo tutorial for the inline pocket here.

The basic stuff:

Sizes: 81 (86, 91, 97, 102) [107, 112, 117, 122, 127] cm / 32 (34, 36, 38, 40) [42, 44, 46, 48, 50] in
Yarn: The Little Grey Sheep Gotland Aran (Natural Grey x 4 (4, 4, 4, 4) [5, 5, 5, 5, 5] skeins ; CC/Lemoncello x 2 skeins)
Needles: 4mm & 5mm long circular needles
Other materials needed: stitch markers, stitch holder(s), 8–9 buttons
Tension (gauge): 17 sts by 24 rows

Approximate yardage

**MC**
550 (580, 620, 660, 700) [730, 770, 800, 840, 870] m
600 (640, 680, 730, 770) [810, 850, 880, 930, 960] yds

**CC**
230 (250, 260, 280, 290) [300, 320, 330, 350, 350] m
250 (270, 280, 300, 320) [330, 350, 360, 380, 390] yds

 

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