Amikihia Knits - Mountains to Sea Cardigan

As our passion for knitting and creating links us, so too does the inspiring landscape of Te Wai Pounamu (South Island, New Zealand) with the Southern Alps (lace triangles) and the rivers flowing between the mountains (cables) reflected in this design. We wanted to celebrate the special area we all live in and bring you something truly local. Locally grown and milled yarn which is locally hand dyed and locally crafted ceramic buttons in a locally crafted design inspired by our landscape. The name ‘Ki uta ki tai’ is also special and unique to Ngāi Tahu (the South Island tribe) and means ‘from the mountains to the sea’. The underlying principle speaks of the connection between everything, and what happens in the mountains affects the sea.

The yarn is beautiful soft 100% Merino, grown and milled all here in the South Island. Because it is a superwash yarn, there is allowance in the pattern for it to ‘grow’ a little with blocking. If you use a non-superwash yarn which does not ‘grow’ the same, you may have a slightly tighter garment than the schematic.

Ki uta ki tai / Mountains to Sea Cardigan is a seamless top-down cardigan with a raglan sleeve. Around the neck is cast on and raglan shaping for the yoke is worked concurrently with neck shaping. Once the neck shaping is complete, the raglan shaping continues down to the separation of the sleeves from the body with a cable pattern worked on the button band edges. The body continues down with hip shaping until a cable and lace pattern is worked and a rib hem. The hem has the cable pattern worked in it too. The sleeves are placed back on the needles and they are worked down with shaping to a ¾ length and a small rib cuff. Button bands are added in rib with button holes and finally, a neckband is picked up and worked in simple rib. Buttons are added and your Ki uta ki tai / Mountains to Sea Cardigan is complete now for you to enjoy!

Finished Sizes
Sizes 1 (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Ki uta ki tai / Mountains to Sea has 0 - 3” / 0 – 7.5 cm of positive ease. Choose a size to knit that is between 0 - 3” / 0- 7.5 cm larger than your actual bust size.
Size 1 – 12 Finished Garment Bust circumference: 31 (34, 37, 40, 43, 46,) 48 ¾, 51 ¾, 54 ¾, 58, 61, 64” / 78 {86, 94, 102, 110, 117} 123.5, 131.5, 139.5, 147, 155, 163 cm

Needles and Notions
US 3 / 3.25 mm circular needles 32” / 80 cm long.
Adjust needle size as needed to obtain correct gauge. Please note: this pattern uses the magic loop technique for the small circumference knitting, alternatively double pointed needles could be used.
US 2 / 2.75 mm circular needles 32” / 80 cm long.
Circular stitch markers, tapestry needle and waste yarn.
7 x ½” / 1 ¼ cm buttons from Miss Muffet Knits.

Yarn – please note these amounts are estimates
Sample knit in Dye Studio 54 fingering weight super-wash 100% New Zealand merino yarn 100gm 400m / 437 yds in colour Monstera.
Approximately 1060 (1140, 1220, 1290, 1370, 1450) 1520, 1600, 1660, 1750, 1840, 1920 yds / 970 {1040, 1110, 1180, 1250, 1320} 1390, 1460, 1520, 1600, 1680, 1760 m of fingering weight yarn required.

Gauge
26 stitches / 40 rows per 4” / 10cm using US 3 / 3.25 mm needle in stockinette worked flat after blocking.