Spring is in the air, here in Boston anyway, and this sweet cardigan has you covered no matter what the weather.

(For the impatient, Aislinn can be purchased for US $7.00 by clicking here.)
Aislinn started with the yarn (the ever-fabulous Plucky Knitter Plucky Sweater), and wishing for some cool spring days for a lighter kind of sweater. I messed around with some swatches for a week or two, and eventually settled on the following sketch:

I love the look of tied-waist sweaters, but they’re typically not my favorite thing to wear since they call attention to my straighter waist. So as I was swatching, I thought to myself: I wonder if I could make a sweater with ties that didn’t go all the way to the sides of the sweater?

As it turns out, the answer is a resounding yes. This is a hugely flattering way to incorporate ties for straighter-waisted shapes. The sides of my waist disappear when I wear the sweater, and all attention is focused on the lace-and-tie curves.
I built the rest of the sweater elements around this eye-catching combination of tie and lace. The neck is shaped like a crew, but wears like a deep, narrow V:

The sleeves, back, and sides of the front are fairly plain stockinette-and-rib, but I edge the rib in a delicate eyelet pattern that echoes the lace on the front. The plackets and ties themselves are done in a very simple 1×1 rib, edged in a tubular cast-on (which I adore).

And like all of my sweaters, Aislinn was designed with modification in mind. It uses vertical darts for waist shaping, which can be easily modified to accommodate any of your body’s shaping needs. There is plenty of Stockinette in which you can carry out any of your mods. And it’s offered in an 11-size range from 30 1/2 – 54 1/2 inches in the bust.

You can find more information on Aislinn here on its design page, or within my Rav pattern store. Jonathan and I had a fantastic time at the photo shoot for the sweater, so I’ll leave you with one additional picture. It’s not the best shot of the sweater, but it perfectly captures the mood of our morning!

Happy knitting!
