Cardigan Lalo

This cozy knitted accessory will keep you warm on cool days, and you definitely won’t go unnoticed in this cardigan . The large number of voluminous braids creates a “sharpei” effect, with folds.

Masterclass on knitting a 'Lalo' style cardigan

Knitting a Lalo style cardigan turned out to be not difficult and interesting, and even not very long, despite the seemingly large amount of work.

You can knit the cardigan as a whole piece, with armhole shaping, or in separate parts. I knitted in separate parts with subsequent joining of details using a hook.

Below I will show my scheme, the yarn I used, the needles, and the description of the Lalo cardigan.

Yarn Alize Lanagold for knitting a Lalo style cardigan

I liked the Alize Lanagold yarn in knitting the Lalo cardigan: it is light, voluminous, slides well on the needles, connects firmly and securely, and is easy to secure when sewing with a needle. It doesn't prick, which is important.

So, the technical specifications for knitting a Lalo style cardigan:

For my Lalo cardigan, I used color Alize Lanagold 193 pistachio.

Yarn length: 100 grams 240 meters in one skein.

The length of my cardigan is 62 cm.

The yarn consumption in one strand for size S and a not long cardigan was about 1200 grams, i.e., about 12 skeins of the specified yarn.

When knitting the Lalo cardigan, I used straight needles size #5 from the Turkish manufacturer Kartopu.

Voluminous braids of the Lalo cardigan

Description of how to knit a Lalo cardigan

The basis of knitting the cardigan lies in knitting voluminous braids, alternating with 2 purl stitches.

My cardigan consists of 14 braids (6 on the back, 4 braids on each front panel).

Each sleeve consists of 3 braids.

The collar consists of 1 braid.

A gradient cardigan is knitted from thinner yarns (for example, Alize Lanagold 800), but not in one, but in 2-3 or 4 strands. The color transition is achieved by changing the yarn to another color. For example, you first knit with 3 pink strands, knit part, then break one pink strand, join a cream strand, and again knit with 3 strands (2 pink + 1 cream), knit part, break the second strand, join pink, knit (1 pink + 2 cream), and so on until you completely replace the color. If the cardigan consists of 3 colors, and you need a total of 12 skeins, for example, then you need at least 4 skeins of each color. It's always better to take some extra!

Scheme of the braid of the Lalo cardigan

Scheme of the braid of the Lalo cardigan

For knitting my Lalo cardigan, I used a braid of 32 stitches (16 on 16 stitches) with a crossover every 30 rows. To make the cardigan more pleated, you can make crossovers every 10-15 cm, i.e., it is not necessary to make crossovers exactly every 30 rows.

The crossovers are performed in the right side row. To perform a crossover, you need to place 16 stitches on a helper needle, then knit 16 stitches as knit, then place the held stitches back onto the main needle and knit them as knit.

Depending on the tilt of the braids, the stitches are held in front of or behind the work.

If the braids “look” to the left, then we hold the stitches in front of the work.

If the braids “look” to the right, then we hold the stitches behind the work.

The specified scheme should be repeated from row 1 to row 30. The crossover is performed in the right side row.

Knitting scheme of the Lalo cardigan

Back of the Lalo cardigan

The first part knitted was the back of the Lalo cardigan.

The back is knitted from bottom to top and consists of 6 braids of 32 stitches.
Starting from the armhole, stitches are decreased, with a total of 1 braid to be decreased from each side of the back, resulting in 4 braids remaining at the top of the back.

Scheme for casting on stitches for the back of the Lalo cardigan:

1 edge stitch + 32 knit stitches + 2 purl stitches + 32 knit stitches + 2 purl stitches + 32 knit stitches + 2 purl stitches + 32 knit stitches + 2 purl stitches + 32 knit stitches + 2 purl stitches + 32 knit stitches + 1 edge stitch = 204 stitches for the back.

Scheme for knitting the back by rows and decreasing for the armhole:

Front panels of the Lalo cardigan

The front panels are knitted from bottom to top.

The braids for the left front panel lean to the right (stitches behind the work), for the right front panel they lean to the left (stitches in front of the work).

1 front panel consists of 4 braids of 32 stitches. Starting from the armhole, stitches are decreased (by 1 braid for each front panel), leaving 3 braids at the top of the front panel.

After knitting to the shoulder line, we close the stitches of 2 braids, leaving the remaining stitches of 1 braid open.
The last braid of the left front panel and the first braid of the right front panel (marked in yellow in the picture) should not be closed, as this will be the collar of the cardigan.

Scheme for casting on stitches for the front panel:

2 edge stitches + 32 knit stitches + 2 purl stitches + 32 knit stitches + 2 purl stitches + 32 knit stitches + 2 purl stitches + 32 knit stitches + 2 edge stitches = 138 stitches for one front panel.

Scheme for how to knit the Lalo cardigan (back and both front panels)

Sleeves of the Lalo cardigan

The sleeves are knitted from bottom to top. 1 sleeve consists of 3 braids.
The sleeve is shaped with a cap.

In the elbow area (individually, can be done earlier), we start adding purl stitches at the edges of the sleeve.

After reaching the armhole, we decrease stitches to reach 3 braids (to 104 stitches).

The braids on the left sleeve “look” to the right (stitches behind the work), the braids on the right sleeve “look” to the left (stitches in front of the work).

Scheme for casting on stitches for the sleeve of the Lalo cardigan:

2 edge stitches + 32 knit stitches + 2 purl stitches + 32 knit stitches + 2 purl stitches + 32 knit stitches + 2 edge stitches = 104 stitches for one sleeve.

Collar of the Lalo cardigan

The collar of the cardigan is knitted from the stitches of two braids of the front panels (1 braid from the right front panel, 1 braid from the left front panel), knitted to the desired length, the two ends are sewn and attached to the back.

Lalo cardigan description on how to knit sleeves and collar

The bottom of the cardigan and sleeves are finished with a thin elastic band, which I crocheted together with the main fabric.

Finishing the bottom and sleeves of the Lalo cardigan

A few more photos of the Lalo style cardigan: