I needed a long cardigan to wear over sleeveless dresses in the summer, so I designed this to fill that hole in my wardrobe. I’m calling it a duster, but to meet that criterion it should be a bit longer. To add width at the back, there is a very wide pleat, which ends at the mid back. The yarn is Shibui Rain, a chained cotton. The fabric is lighter than many cottons, but it supplies support for the back pleat. The duster is knit from the bottom up, but the sleeves are worked top down using the short-row technique. I found the stitch pattern in Barbara Walker’s A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns, but to me it looks more like Baby Butterflies than Tiny Bowknots. I chose this simple stitch pattern because I wanted the duster to have a woven texture. Note that instructions are provided for working this pattern both flat and in the round. The inside pleat, which is the same width for all sizes, is worked in stockinette stitch. Since stockinette has fewer stitches per inch than the Baby Butterfly pattern, it makes the pleat longer, which is what I wanted.

The duster is designed with 4” of ease so that it can be comfortably worn over a garment. The front is wider by 2” to ensure that it can be closed in the front without gaps.