A Sweater to Knit for Warmer Days

As a person who is pretty much always cold, I wear sweaters throughout the year. Sometimes I will wear lighter weight sweaters, or even short-sleeved sweaters, but there is often a sweater nearby even when it’s hot outside.

The Elton Pullover by Joji Locatelli is a great sweater pattern to knit for warmer weather, even if you’re not a person who is cold all the time.

It combines a fingering weight yarn and a lace weight mohair, but not in the way you might expect. Instead of both strands of yarn being held together while you work, this project has you work them in stripes. That means you end up with more solid bands of fabric where the fingering weight yarn is used, and fuzzy, see-through stripes where you are knitting with the mohair.

The textural contrast is a lot of fun, and the airflow provided keeps you from getting too hot when you wear it.

The pattern is a pullover version of a previously published cardigan pattern, so check that out, too, if a cardigan is more your style.

The pullover version is available in 10 sizes with chest measurements ranging from 30 to 60 inches. It’s designed to be worn with about 16 inches of positive ease, so the actual sweater measurements range from 44 to 80 inches. Of course if your chest measurement is larger than 44 you can adjust the level of ease by working a different size.

The design features a crew neck and drop shoulders, and is worked in the round from the top down. It’s available in both English and Spanish. You can get the patterns on Ravelry for the pullover and the cardigan version.

[Photo: Joji Locatelli.]

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I feel like when it comes to things that people are afraid to knit, socks probably top the list. I’ve heard people say they would never knit socks because they look too hard, but really you just need to know a few basic things (and trust the pattern even though it sounds wrong the first time you do it) to master socks.

Denise DeSantis aims to take the worry out of knitting socks with No Fear Sock Knitting. Based on a class on her YouTube channel, it includes all the basic information you need to make sock knitting feel easier, along with eight patterns for both top down and toe up socks.

The book generally covers types of needles and yarn you might use to knit socks, as well as other supplies you will need. It looks at the parts of the sock, different knitting needle configurations used to knit socks, how to read a pattern (including abbreviations and terms you might find in sock patterns), discussion of ease, how to measure your foot and choosing the correct size to knit.

It includes two options each for casting on cuff down and toe up socks, as well as four options for cuff treatment. It explores the heel flap and turn method for top down and toe up socks, as well as short row heels using a shadow wrap (worked with a leg from the stitch below) and a square heel. There’s a discussion of avoiding holes and fixing other problems in heels.

Likewise with toes there are several options, including a wedge toe, round toe and anatomical toe (different on each foot) for both cuff down and toe up socks. There are also tutorials for grafting and Jeny’s surprisingly stretchy bind off, depending on which direction you’re going. There’s also a tips section that covers things like avoiding ladders, changing colors. matching stripes and more.

After all that preparation, there are eight patterns to choose from: short socks worked from the top down that are a perfect first-sock sock, a basic ankle-length toe-up sock, a DK weight sock worked from the top down with different length options, a “vanilla” sock with a short row heel worked top down, an ankle sock with a garter stitch cuff, one with a leg worked in alternating colors with a contrasting heel and toe, a sock worked in a helical stripe pattern and a striped sock with a garter stitch heel.

Three of the patterns are rated at skill level two on a scale of three, while the rest are level one. They’re all pretty straightforward, they just use different techniques you might not have tried before. Since only one is made to be toe up, there are also tips for converting the other patterns to toe up if you’d rather work that way. Each pattern includes three size options.

This book is a nice introduction to sock knitting, with lots of techniques to reference and simple patterns to take the fear out of the process. I’m not sure these are patterns you’ll come back to time and again but they are a good place to start if you’ve never knit socks before.

About the book: 128 pages, paperback, 8 patterns. Published 2025 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $24.99.

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