New knitter - please recommend me an easy baby cardigan!

[StarsAbove]

I've joined Ravelry but am overwhelmed by choice and as I have only knitted scarves before I can't tell which patterns are likely to be easy - some which call themselves easy look distinctly tricky!

Can anyone point me in the direction of a free pattern for a cardigan for an 18 month old please?

www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/gilet-bon-point this one is dead easy, if you can knit a scarf you can definately do this.
www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/puerperium-cardigan easy but a bit harder than first one.
They probably aren't the right size but you should be able to bigger pattern versions.

Thank you, the first one is only in French and second is only newborn size but I've found some similar ones so will have a go!

The puerperium cardigan that qazxc recommended is lovely. Easy, looks modern and very user friendly. I've made 2 for my daughter and she loves them. The designer has a pattern for it that you can pay for (quite cheap) with the cardigan in different sizes and for different weight yarns.

Good luck with the knitting.

Elizabeth Zimmerman has a baby cardigan that always gets spoken about in almost reverential tones...it's called 'Baby Surprise Jacket' and is on Ravelry.

I have just finished a Baby surprise jacket. Although it is spoken about much, there are two things against it for a beginner knitter: there are lots of different techniques and it isn't an easy to understand pattern. Even I, as a very experienced knitter, had to use a row by row pattern and do some frogging and head scratching.
The second point is that the actual pattern is not on Ravelry but has to be ordered from America and paid for.
Have a look on my Ravelry profile if you want to see the jacket I finished just yesterday (same user name)

The colours you used are lovely Dutchoma.

Wow, Dutchoma, you have knitted some beautiful items.

Thank you both. The colours were just a very cheap yarn from Wilkinson's, nothingclever about it.

Yes, I agree with Dutchoma. The Baby Surprise Jacket is lovely, I've done three (here are two of them Crofter and Knitcol) but you need more than just the pattern to make it through this, there's a Wiki and lots of help but it's not a simple line-by-line pattern.

I like Carina Spencer's patterns, this one was very popular with the parents as easy to put on the baby.

You could also try something like Pippi (which is free), Zen, Sideways Dude, Garter stitch kimono (free), or Snug.

Have a look at "10 simple projects for cosy babies " by Sarah Hatton , if you search on Ravelry it should come up.I am in the middle of the frilly cardigan and it's very simple and pretty , a friend has completed the garter stitch cardigan and said the same .

If you want really simple, this seamless shrug is lovely. I have done it in many sizes and several different types of wool and they are quick to do and lovely. If you don't like the lace effect on the raglan sleeve 'seams', you can purl into the back of the YO and it makes it a bit neater.

Try this one - there's a few tricky things like casting off part of a row, putting stitches on a stitch holder (like a giant safety pin), but it does avoid a lot of sewing up, and there's no picking up stitches for button bands.

www.lionbrand.com/patterns/L10655.html