At the beginning of the year, I encouraged our readers to “make with me“. In that post I shared a few of the many benefits that you may get from picking up a hobby, and I gave you a few simple suggestions for how to turn your hobby into a regular habit (that’s good for you!).
If you follow our Instagram feed or have been a long-time reader, it’s no surprise that my primary hobby is knitting. I always have a project (or ten) in the works. While I don’t need the encouragement to knit more, I’m taking this resolution as a nudge to share more of my projects, in their many phases, on the blog. And if you’d like to find me on Ravelry, my username is winterfoliage.
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Simple Kid’s Sweater
The pattern is Adventures with Rainbows sweater by Jennifer Steingass of Knit.Love.Wool.
Details & Modifications
At its core, this pattern is for a simple top-down sweater with a circular yoke. This post contains another example of a sweater with a circular yoke. And you can contrast those with this project that has a raglan yoke. I talk a little bit more about why I recommend this type of pattern (especially if you’re new to sweater knitting) below.
I knit the 5/6 yo size, which was just about perfect for our almost 5 yo. The only changes I made were on needle size – I sized up for the body and the ribbing because I know that I’m a relatively tight knitter, especially when doing stockinette in the round. So I used a US 7 rather than a 6 on the body and sleeves, and a US 5 rather than a 4 for all ribbing.
I added one short-row while working the neck ribbing. This adds a little bit of extra height to the back of the neck. It’s not necessary, but can be a nice touch, especially on sweaters for older kids and adults.
As I mentioned on Instagram, I used Knit Picks Swish Worsted for this project. It’s a superwash merino yarn that comes in a wide variety of colors. What does that mean? Superwash means that the sweater is machine washable. I also use a delicate cycle and then lay the sweater out to air dry. Merino is a type of wool that’s super soft and is perfect for people that find other wools itchy. Basically, this is an all-around perfect yarn to use for kid’s sweaters that you want to last.
Why you should make this.
The nice thing about this type of sweater is that it’s relatively easy to construct. And, as I’ll try to explain, you can test the fit as you knit. Those two details make it a great first sweater project for someone who is new to sweater knitting.
The sweater begins at the neckline, and as you’re knitting down, there are a few rows where you will increase evenly all the way around the sweater (rather than at four specific points for a raglan). Once you’ve knit the yoke, you will put aside the stitches for the sleeves, cast on a few for under the arms, and continue knitting the rest of the body. Then, you’ll go back, pick up the sleeve stitches and knit the sleeves the length you want.
The whole time you’re knitting, you can easily slip the sweater over a child’s head to try it on. How awesome is that?! No guesswork, you’ll know in the moment if the sweater is going to be a good fit.
This pattern was also written in a such a way that at the very end you go back and add the ribbing for the neckline. Another nice detail for a kid’s sweater, because you don’t have to worry about it fitting over a large noggin, you can adjust that all at the end.
The other thing that I love about this pattern is that the coloring is super easy to modify. You can make a rainbow, but you could also do stripes of any color (and this particular yarn has so many color options!).
Imagine an ombre of stripes in a kiddo’s favorite color? Or just a couple of thicker stripes? You could even knit the whole sweater in a single color.
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I hope you’ll give this one a try. Given the amount of time Amax wore his over the weekend, it’s a definite winner.