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]

Not too long ago I did a test knit for another designer that was for a cabled cardigan. It’s really cozy and nice but it just about broke me in a ton of different ways. I couldn’t get gauge, which I suppose is my own problem, but mainly I was somehow both bored and forced to pay attention at the same time.

Because it used the same cable all over, I always had to know what row I was on, but nine out of ten of those rows, nothing in particular was going on. So I couldn’t stop paying attention, but what I needed to attend to was boring.

It may have ruined me for knitting cabled sweaters, but maybe I just need something that’s more engaging. Like this Modern Aran Cardigan pattern from Lion Brand Yarn.

This is a reworking of an old pattern from their archives, and you can tell that form the classic look of the cables and the oversized feel (nothing cropped about this one!). It has allover cables, but like a classic Aran sweater it’s not the same cable, so you’ll have to pay attention to what row you’re on and what cable turns happen for which cables on that row.

Because of this, it’s considered an intermediate knitting pattern, but if you’re comfortable working from multiple charts at once it shouldn’t be a problem for you. There are three different charts and seven different cable moves.

Also because the pattern is so big and boxy there are only two sizes available, with a finished chest measurement of either 49 or 63 inches (that’s 124.5 or 160 cm). It’s up to you to decide how much ease you would like and whether that will work for your body.

The pattern uses worsted weight yarn (and calls for another classic, Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool). It calls for six buttons and includes pockets to make it extra cozy.

This one looks like a great winter project to make and to wear if you’re up for a bit of a challenge. You can grab the free pattern or buy a kit with the yarn needed direct from Lion Brand Yarn.

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]

Have you read?