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]

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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