May I interest you in a nice project for practising colourwork on the purl side? 

Dear friend,

I hope you are doing well.

I will try to keep this short as there is just one reason for this letter today but I'm very excited so we'll see how that goes. The long-awaited Smilgas Cardigan pattern is finally out! And my excitement is to do with it being a different kind of colourwork garment than the usual round-yoke sweater.

It's worked from the top down, flat, with raglan shaping, which means that some of the colourwork rows are worked on the purl side. But do not fear! There are only 27 such rows in the whole project (or 18 if you do a cropped version). That makes this a perfect project for practising the skill, and there's plenty of plain stockinette every nine such rows for a relaxing break.

My favourite feature of this cardigan, no doubt, is the button band. There are a couple of videos included demoing the techniques used in case visuals help.

The colourwork motif is easily memorable and intuitive, so once you get going, it's a breeze. All you have to do is pick your favourite colour as a contrast colour and a neatural colour for main, and you will have a great time making it! I enjoyed knitting mine as I used my hand-spun yarn as the contrast colour, making it very special.

I feel everyone should have a cosy v-neck cardigan in their wardrobe; it's so easy to style over shirts or t-shirts, opened or closed—endless and timeless possibilities. This design is quite oversized, and the sleeves are lengthened, so check the measurement table when deciding the size.

Happy knitting,

Zanete