The Sintra Cardigan

Fiona traveled in Portugal last year, when she began designing Sintra. As she traveled, the stitches on her needles mimicked the surfaces of stone walls and cobblestone streets that stretch across Portugal.

Named after the scenic town, Sintra is a highly textured, yet light weight cardigan, made in Genmou DK.

Genmou means raw wool in Japanese. Daruma’s Genmou is a soft, lightly spun wool with a second merino thread spun around the main merino fibres, creating a yarn with loft and texture.

Combine the texture of the wool with Fiona’s contrasting textured stitches and you get a cardigan with lots of interest! The collar and body/sleeves have unique textured stitches, giving just enough variety to attract attention, without being too busy.

Sintra is worked back and forth in rows, starting with the neckband, before picking up stitches and working downwards for the back yoke and sleeves, increasing along the raglan lines. Stitches are then put on hold for the sleeves, and picked up for the fronts. This allows flattering shaping to occur at the shoulders.

The body then continues downwards incorporating short rows as you go, before casting off at the hem. The sleeves are finally picked up and worked downwards in the round. The contrasting stitch patterns create an asymmetrical shape to give a slightly longer back hemline.

This pattern takes between 7-13 balls of yarn, depending on size. We stock 20 colours of Genmou; choose a neutral or a favourite to wear-with everything!

You can find the printed pattern here or the PDF download here.

Knit-Along

We’re hosting a knit-along for Sintra, starting September 23. You can find the Ravelry forum of that here. We hope you’ll join us, we love seeing everyone’s progress on a new pattern. If you have any questions about the sizing, yarn or gauge, you can post on the forum anytime.