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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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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