A Pretty Circular Yoke Sweater to Get You Through Winter

I was thinking the other day about how I really like circular yoke sweaters, and I hardly ever knit them. This is a style that’s worked in one piece from the top down, and you generally increase a lot of stitches over a few strategically placed rounds (as opposed to, say, a raglan sweater where you’re increasing every round or two).

The fun thing about them is they’re a great canvas for colorwork, whether you start with smaller motifs and make them bigger as you go down the yoke, or just for doing different bands of colorwork as you go.

The Floe Jumper from The Petite Knitter uses a variety of diamonds, zigzags and other little designs worked in three different colors to make the yoke fun and interesting to knit. The colors are inspired by a sunny winter day in the Arctic, but you can change it up with whatever colors you prefer.

This sweater is worked with DK weight yarn in four colors total, and it comes in 10 sizes, with garment chest measurements ranging from 31 to 66 inches, or 79 to 168 centimeters. The sweater is meant to be worn with 3 to 5 inches (7.5 to 13 cm) of positive ease.

As shown it has a cropped length and bracelet length sleeves, but the pattern includes customization options for the length of the sweater and the sleeves, as well as optional waist shaping.

You can buy the pattern (which is available in English and French) on Ravelry or direct from the designer.

If you’re looking for more circular yoke sweater knitting patterns or want to learn more about this style of garment, check out my review of the book Only Yoking by Olga Putano, which includes three base bodies with four different yoke options each to give you a range of designs to work in different weights of yarn.

[Photo: The Petite Knitter]

Next Pattern:

If you’re new to lace knitting or just aren’t sure how to incorporate the technique into garments, check out these tops and sweaters that use lace as a decorative element.

The easiest lace out there is eyelets, and you can practice them plenty with this eyelet covered sweater from Knitcro Addict. It uses light/DK weight yarn and is worked in four pieces knit flat. It’s intended to be a little cropped and a little oversized, and includes sizes XS to XXL in the pattern.

If you’re in parts of the world where it’s getting colder as you read this, the Nora sweater from Bummbul might be a good choice. This is actually a great one for learning lace because it’s worked in super bulky yarn, which makes it easier to see what you’re doing and makes the lace super graphic. This one just comes in one size, with a 42 inch (106) cm bust, but that could fit a variety of people depending on how much ease you like.

Minimi Knit Design has a cute allover lace cardigan worked in one piece from the bottom up. It’s worked in lace weight mohair held double, which maybe isn’t the best for those new to lace (because it can be hard to rip out) but it sure is pretty. Sizes range to fit from 30 to 66 inches/76 to 168 cm bust measurements.

If you’d rather not have lace all over your sweater, you can knit the Lumi sweater from Originally Lovely, which has a chevron lace pattern on the yoke and is otherwise worked in reverse stockinette stitch. (It’s worked inside out so you don’t have to purl every stitch.) The pattern has 9 sizes from XS to 5XL and uses worsted weight yarn.

Or try the super romantic sookie blouse from Trust the mojo (available on Ravelry). This sweet top is started working flat from the bottom up and has a V-neck and I-cord edgings. The sleeves are worked separately in the round, and the pieces are all joined together to work in one piece to finish off the top. It comes in eight sizes and is available in English and French.

You can also pair lacy sleeves with an otherwise plain top, like on the Starflower Wrap from Annelise Driscoll Gingrow. This intermediate pattern makes a wrap sweater with generous lacy sleeves and a double wrap belt. The pattern has nine sizes, from XS to 5XL, and is available for free from Hobbi.

Next Pattern:

Have you read?