I made my third Abate sweater this winter and was reminded why it’s such a great pattern for the kids wearing it and the adults knitting it…

Sweater Details

• pattern: Abate
• yarn: KnitPicks Swish Worsted | This is my go-to yarn for kids’ sweaters. It’s super soft and can be easily washed using the delicate cycle in my machine. After washing I lay it out to dry.
• needle sizes: US 8 & 6 | The original pattern calls for a US10 for the body of the sweater. I used that for the first two Abates, but found that it was a looser knit than I wanted, so I used a US8 for this last one.

Why knit the Abate sweater?

I love this sweater as an easy kids’ knit for a few reasons.

• design: I love the raised collar look and always skip the ties* because we don’t use them. This is a cozy sweater for kids. I think of this design as being the sweater version of a comfy sweatshirt.

• collar design: The collar is knit after you finish the rest of the sweater, making it easy to play around with. I like having the flexibility to adjust the height of a collar on a kids’ sweater, because some are more sensitive to things around their necks. On the latest black one I made it a little bit shorter, and Luc had it folded down in the photos, but the look of the tall collar first drew me to this pattern. On Luc’s first blue on, you’ll see that I kept it as a v-neck and never went back to add the height.

• neck/collar size: It has a great/large neck hole to body ratio! I often worry about the neck being stretchy enough to easily fit over large kid heads, and then not being too big around their necks. My kids have large heads, and if it’s too hard to put on a shirt, they aren’t interested. Abate is designed so that you start by knitting a v-neck type sweater, then at the end, you go back and add the tall collar. That v-neck design makes it so that the neck hole is large and you’ll never have to worry about big noggins!

• simplicity: Aside from the little bit of neck detail, this is a very easy and mindless sweater to knit. It’s great when you’re just in need of a quick turnaround, but it’s also a pattern that I’d recommend to someone who is still fairly new to sweater knitting.

*I did add the ties to the maroon abate that I knit for Alex, BUT I took them out a few minutes after taking that photo, and never put them back in!