A Perfect Sweater to Knit if You’re New to Knitting Sweaters

There are so many great simple sweater knitting patterns out there, I feel like I say that patterns are great for beginners or for your first sweater all the time.

Honestly, I love these super basic sweater patterns even though I’ve probably knit 20 or more adult sweaters in my career. Give me a simple stockinette stitch, top-down, circular knit sweater any day. It’s great for TV knitting once you have a grasp on the shaping or when that part is done, and it’s a perfect blank slate project to add colored stripes, textured stripes, use your odd balls, etc.

The Studio Sweater from Ysolda Teague is worked in DK or light worsted weight yarn with an integrated deep ribbed neckline. It has a circular yoke and a bit of short row shaping to lower the front of the sweater. After that raglan shaping is integrated for a better fit around the underarms.

Once the sleeves are separated it’s smooth stitching unless you want to add additional cup shaping for a better fit. There are regular and tall length options, and the straight fit makes it a gender-neutral style.

There are 12 size options in the pattern to fit a chest measurement ranging from 30 to 73 inches, or 70 to 183 cm. You can choose how much ease you want to include, and there are four cup shaping options (from no shaping to a G/H cup).

As the pattern notes say, this would be a great first easy sweater project or a simple, well-fitting sweater project for someone with more experience who just doesn’t want to put a lot of thought into the project. Either way you’re going to get a great sweater, and a good sweater pattern you’ll probably come back to again and again.

You can get a copy of the pattern from Ravelry.

[Photo: Ysolda Teague]

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Getting ready for back to school makes me think about pencil crafts, so let’s take a look at some pencil themed knitting patterns!

I recently made a pencil on a circular knitting machine, and it was a fun, quick, easy project that uses little bits of leftover yarn (and if you don’t have yellow you can make it a colored pencil using whatever color’s your favorite). And if you want to make a bigger version check out this pattern from Orange Olive Road on Etsy.

If you want to knit a pencil pillow by hand, check out Sketchy, available on Ravelry from Shana S. Cohen. This one uses worsted weight yarn and has two size options and the choice to make a pencil with an eraser or a colored pencil.

Pencil scarves seem to be the most popular kind of pencil knitting pattern, and there are lot of cute ones. This one from Cosy Craft UK mostly uses garter stitch, with some welts to add texture and what looks like an I-cord edging. It calls for DK weight yarn.

If you want to go all garter stitch try this version from Emsley Co Creations, which uses five colors of DK weight yarn and just a little shaping to make the point of the pencil.

There’s also this fun, mostly stockinette so it looks like it curls a bit, pencil pattern that looks like it’s worked in chunky yarn from Little Knits Studio. This one uses just a little garter stitch and easy shaping for the point.

If you don’t want a pencil scarf, how about some pencil socks? The No. 2 Pencil Socks from The Yarn Enabler are available from Ravelry and use five colors of sock yarn. They feature wide ribs to mimic the texture of a pencil and have options to be worked from the top down or the toe up.

Needs Sharpening by Alexander Walker is a free pattern on Ravelry that uses five colors of sock yarn to make a sort of shortie sock. The little bit of black at the tips of the toes inspired the name. These, too, can be worked in either direction and are available in three sizes.

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