Combining the elegant drape of a sari with the casual fit of a cardigan for a unique sweater that could only be called Sari Cardi!

While wearing this cardi, I keep getting compliments on my scarf? shawl? or wait, is it a sweater? And from the back, it does look like I have a shawl thrown over my shoulders. From the front, you suddenly realize the “shawl” is breaking all the rules about how a rectangle can wrap and drape, and begin to suspect there is something else going on! Personally, I consider this to be a sweater first. A sweater that just happens to grow into a crescent shawl on the side.

You are probably curious about how it stays on, and what is going on under that shawl overlap. The other side of the cardi cuts on a diagonal from the left shoulder down to the right side of the waist. Right there, on the right side of the waist, there is a button, and a corresponding buttonhole on the overlapping opposite side. This keeps the under-front of the cardi on properly, and ensures that the back of the cardi stays close to the skin. This is the only closure. Friction keeps the shawl part on top of your shoulder and arm, and this is why I do not recommend substituting a pure silk yarn, or a smooth cotton. Slippery yarn is likely to end up being rather annoying to wear! I hate having to keep pulling up some piece of clothing that won’t stay on. You will probably find that you need to adjust the sweater slightly after bending over, or flinging your arms about, but generally speaking, it should stay up very well while driving or doing everyday, calm, activities. (note: this is going to change somewhat depending on the yarn you use, and your own body shape)

This cardi uses short rows (wrap and turn), increases and decreases, stitch markers, knit and purl, and a bit of grafting at the underarm. Most rows are nice mindless “tv knitting”, and I tried to keep counting to an absolute minimum.

The sizes are to fit a 26-30 (30-34, 34-38, 38-42, 42-46, 46-50) inch bust, though the fit is a bit flexible due to the drape.
You will need 550 (625, 700, 725, 850, 925) yds of the main color (shown in Sage) and 250 (275, 300, 350, 375, 425) yds of the contrast color (shown in Sea Emerald)

This pattern has been translated to French, and you will find two files when you go to download the pattern. “sari cardi” is in English, “sari cardi - Français” is French.

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Errata: Row 141 in the yoke should not be bolded.
Row 161: k2tog, k2, k2tog should be replaced with k2tog, k1. Either will work, but I think the second will look better in the FO.