Valley Rooves cabled cardigan knitting pattern

Valley Rooves is a textured, cabled cardigan to throw on when you want to feel cosy.

It's knit up using an unusual construction, starting from the top-down, featuring cables on the shoulders, sleeves and pockets, with a contrast edging on the pockets, cuffs, hem, button band and collar. 

Saddle shoulder pieces are worked in a cable pattern, put on hold, then stitches for each front and back are picked up from the shoulder pieces and worked separately as far as the underarms. The fronts and back are joined and worked flat; stitches are put on hold for the pockets, and new pocket stitches are cast on and worked in their place; the pocket lining is knitted and stitched down after the body is complete. There’s an option to add a slight taper at the sides of the body - useful if you're a knitter with broad shoulders or a fuller chest and narrower waist or hips. Hem stitches are placed on hold once the majority of the ribbing is worked.

Sleeve stitches are picked up around the armholes along with the shoulder stitches. The cable panel from the saddle shoulder continues down the top of the sleeve. Short rows shape the sleeve cap, then the sleeves are worked in the round, tapering to the cuffs.

Finally, stitches are picked up for the button band and collar, with short rows for the shawl collar and options for buttonholes on either the right or left. The hem stitches are then worked with the collar and button band stitches for a continuous edging in contrast yarn.

My Westcountry collection of knitting patterns

This knit design is part of From This Land, a capsule collection of 5 knitting patterns, using undyed yarns from local farms in the South-West of England. Each design is inspired by a visit to the farm the yarn is from. 

For the Valley Rooves Cardigan, I worked with Carolyn of Gullet Farm in South Devon. Her flock includes Shetland, Black Welsh Mountain, and Romney sheep, and she blends the fleeces to create an interesting collection of British wool yarns. The yarn used here combines coloured Shetland fleece with white Romney wool, resulting in a subtly, beautifully heathered yarn.

Design inspiration

The inspiration for this knitting pattern came from the steep hill leading down to Gullet Farm. From the top, the first glimpse of the house is its stone rooftops clustered together at sharp angles. These rooftops inspired the deep V-shaped cables, each containing a smaller inverted V, which run down the sleeves and across the front pockets of the cardigan. 

About the collection

Thanks to South-West England Fibreshed for partially funding the development of this collection of knitting patterns, which also includes a stranded colourwork tank top, a textured scarf, colourwork mittens and a felted hat.