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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Blankets are a great blank slate project that you can change up in a million different ways. From color to stitch pattern to size, the possibilities are almost endless.

Jared Flood, the designer behind Brooklyn Tweed, was inspired by a log cabin quilt his mother made in 1995 to re-create that design in knitting, which led to more blankets and ultimate Brooklyn Tweed’s Knit and Crochet Blankets, which includes 25 patterns from an array of designers using different skills and techniques to make cozy, pretty blankets.

The patterns are divided into three aesthetic themes: traditions, minimalism and colorplay. The patterns are rated on a scale of one to five, with one being the easiest, and there aren’t any pieces rated five. Two blankets are rated one, 14 are two, eight are three and one is four.

In addition, three of the 25 patterns are crocheted, but they either use single crochet or granny stitch, so they are pretty easy even if you don’t do a lot of crochet. You can see all the patterns on Ravelry.

Some of my favorites include Rattan by Rastus Hsu, a chunky blanket worked in knits and purls with simple crossing stitches to make a raised woven look; Homewood by Seth Richardson, covers in dramatic, loopy cables; Ainur Berkimbayeva’s Tessellate, one of the beginner projects that doesn’t really look beginner but is totally worked in knit and purl stitches; Warp + Weft by Aist? Butkevi?ien?, which is mostly knits and purls but makes a fun woven look fabric that blew my mind a little bit; and the same designer’s Canyonland, a multicolored blanket with wavy stripes.

The patterns tell you how to resize them for different dimensions and include information on pattern repeats where it is possible to make a totally custom size.

Many different techniques are included here such as cables, lace, shadow knitting, intarsia and other colorwork techniques, as well as modular knitting and lots of sewing pieces together. The patterns are all presented with charts, but there are line by line written instructions available on the Brooklyn Tweed website if you need them.

The book ends with a deep dive into log cabin knitting, telling the story of the quilt Jared’s mom made and how he made it in knitting, as well as the multitude of variations you can make if you want your own log cabin style design.

The back of the book includes a little written information about some of the special techniques needed, but there are no photos.

This is a lovely book full of inspiration for knitting and crochet blankets for any skill level. If you like to make blankets as gifts or aspire to have a handmade blanket in every room of the house, these designs would be a great place to start.

About the book: 192 pages, paperback, 25 patterns. Published 2024 by Abrams Books, suggested retail price $24.99.

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