I have 3 cardigans.  All of which are store bought.  As a knitter and crocheter I am somewhat ashamed to admit this.  There are tons of beautiful patterns out there for cardigans and I haven’t made any.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I did knit myself a cardigan when I first started knitting.  It was the Must Have Cardigan from Hip to Knit by Judith Swartz.

I used an inappropriate yarn – the sleeves turned out too long and the body too short.  The collar is awkward.  I have worn it a grand total of one time.

It was a great lesson in all those things you need to think about when knitting something though and how NOT to plan for a cardigan.

I also have a half finished Cabled Cardigan from an issue of Vogue Knitting. I’m afraid to pick it up again because I stopped mid-sleeve and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to remember how to continue.  I can always start over with the sleeves or move on to the fronts, of course.  It’s a beautiful pattern and I love the drape of the yarn I chose.

The color of the yarn is a little better than what it looks like in these pictures, but still not much.  Evidently I’m a fan of purple cardigans, which I would not have said without having seen the proof!

There’s also a part of me that doesn’t want to finish this cardigan because I’m afraid it won’t fit right.  I gained a lot of weight since I cast on for it in Spring 2007 and though I am starting to shed some of those extra pounds (woo!), I still worry.  I don’t want to finish it and then be disappointed when it doesn’t fit right.  I know there are ways to ensure a proper fit with knitwear, but since I’ve already done the back, I’m not sure I’d want to go through the hassle of adjusting the front.  I might as well try, though, right?  The worst that will happen is it won’t fit and I’ll have to find someone else to give it to and that’s not so bad.  Not ideal, but not the end of the world.

As a result, my lonesome store-bought cardigans get too much use.  I really need to have more cardigans in my wardrobe, preferably handmade, so I have decided to declare 2012 the Year of the Cardigan for me. I want to knit one cardigan a month for the entire year. I might get a headstart this year and knit up a few as well.  The bummer about my office building during the summer is that it’s entirely too cold so even when it’s 90 degrees outside, it’s probably 55 or 60 at my desk, so it would be good to have more cardigans year-round.  As I mentioned earlier, there are a ton of great cardigan patterns out there already, so the hard part will be choosing which ones to work on!

I’ve already bought the fiber to spin the yarn to make a Tappan Zee:

And of course, there’s the ever popular February Lady Sweater, which I would also really love to have.  I would just need to obtain some yarn for it.  It would be easy to pick this one to do in February.

There are shrugs that I would classify as cardigans for this project, like the Circular Shrug and the Layering Shrug.  I might spend the rest of the morning browsing Ravelry and making a list of cardigans to knit or crochet for 2012.

Someday, I fully intend to have more handmade cardigans and sweaters than I have store-bought ones, and this will be a perfect project to get me there.

Do you have a favorite handmade cardigan that you’d recommend I knit or crochet?  Please share!