Intermediate: This pattern is for those who feel comfortable with knitting and have made a few projects, using various skills and techniques. Skills/concepts include reading a pattern, working increases and decreases, seaming the sweater, working cables from a chart, and picking up stitches for the button band and neckline. 

Notes From the Designer:

One of the most beautiful things on this planet is a whale. Enormous, yet graceful; powerful, yet gentle. I once had the privilege of seeing a blue whale off the coast of Monterey Bay in California when I was young, and it was an experience I'll never forget. Rubato is a musical term that literally means "to rob time." When a composer adds this notation to a piece, it gives the performer the liberty to stretch the tempo to enhance the emotional impact of the music. Some experiences in life are so wonderful that you want to rob time, so you can savor them a little longer – my whale watching trip definitely being one of them!

I designed this cardigan to be something simple, yet featuring complicated looking cables that would make it nice for those occasions when you want to savor life in both comfort and elegance. Rubato is knit with a cotton blend yarn, so it's soft and springy, but not overly warm. The cables are an adaptation of a stitch found in Norah Gaughan’s Knitted Cable Sourcebook. I hope you enjoy this sweater and can find ways to enjoy the special rubato moments in life. 

• Click the Videos tab to watch a tutorial on how to pick up and knit stitches for the button band and the buttonhole band, how to work the buttonholes, and how to sew on the buttons. 
• This sweater is worked bottom up in pieces and seamed. The button bands and collar are added at the end. When working a BO section for the shoulders or sleeve caps, it is helpful to slip the first stitch purlwise, so the shaping forms a straight line instead of a stair-step effect.
• If you're new to working cables from a chart, you might find it helpful to color code the different cable symbols to make it easier to recognize them while you're working through the pattern.
• Because the suggested yarn might have slight color variation among the skeins, I recommend alternating skeins every other row or every two rows to help blend the colors and prevent obvious color shifts and/or lines from forming between skeins, especially when you're ready to start a new skein. In other words, work 1-2 rows with skein A and then 1-2 rows with skein B, and repeat the process until the new skein is nicely blended into the work.