Ting a Ling Cardigan

Yay! I am finished with my first knitted Christmas gift. So I am 50% done with knitted Christmas gifts. (That means I am only knitting two items for you math whiz's out there). The Ting a Ling Cardigan is for my best friend's 3 year old daughter. I think it came out nicely, but I am still favoring that Seed and Garter Stitch Stripe Cardigan.

I have a few gripes with this cardigan. First is that there are no formal buttonholes. The buttons are just pushed through the seed stitch band, which wasn't that simple.
Second gripe: the shaping. See those bulges under the armpits? The body was shaped with increasing to the arm hole, making a slight V. I was wondering how that would end up, and I must say I am not crazy about that either. I picture this being bulky and bunched up on the recipient.

Here is my artistic view of the cardigan:

And this is the cardigan from the pattern book I used, Miss Bea's Band by Louisa Harding.


There are a lot of very cute items in this book. I stuck with the yarn suggested (Rowan Handknit Cotton) in the pattern to keep things simple. I used the same pink for the ruffle trim, but changed the body to a light blue.