Bands of Colorwork Add Direction to This Sweater

Adding colorwork to a sweater is a great way to change the look and make simple stockinette look more interesting. You can easily make different looking sweaters from the same pattern by adding or removing colorwork or changing its placement.

With the Directional Pullover from Aimee Sher, you can change the placement and size of the colorwork bands or remove them altogether. Work the pattern all the way down the sleeves, or leave it off the sleeves and just have it on the body.

The sweater is worked from the top down in one piece, with a modified drop shoulder a V-neck design. The sleeves are worked striaght and gathered near the wrist for a balloon effect.

Optional bust darts are available, and the sizing is such that the front is wider than the back on most sizes to accommodate the bust. It was designed with 8.75 inches or 20.5 cm of positive ease.

There are 11 sizes available, meant to fit actual bust sizes ranging from 30 to 66 inches, or 76 to 167.5 cm.

It calls for a lofty worsted weight yarn and the pattern notes include some suggestions for yarn substitution if you don’t have access to the Hinterland yarn used in the sample.

There are also a few different projects on the pattern page on Ravelry so you can see how different kinds and colors of yarn look in the pattern. There are also lots of variations in these projects including one with short sleeves, long sleeves without the colorwork, longer and shorter panels of colorwork, and no colorwork at all. There’s even one worked with two strands of sock yarn held together for a fun marled look.

The project is designed to be like a snuggly sweatshirt that you’ll want to wear when you need a bit of warmth and comfort.

You can find the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Aimee Sher]

Knit Your First Sweater with Easy Raglan Patterns

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I can’t resist a pattern that’s both useful and a little silly, and that’s exactly how I feel about the Rybka pouch pattern from the delightfully named Rat and Sea Witch.

I know you’re going to ask, because I did, too. Rybka means little fish in Polish. (And because you’re also probably going to ask, Rat and Sea Witch comes from people’s attempts to say the designer’s name, Ratasiewicz, which if you say it fast kind of sounds like rat and sea witch.)

It’s easy to make a little fish bag in different sizes to suit your needs. The pattern has specific instructions for an Airpods Pro case and a pencil case, but you could change the length easily to hold more stuff, and change the size in general by working with a different weight of yarn.

The pattern calls for sock yarn and mohair held together to make a fingering weight gauge, but you could try it with heavier yarn and see what size bag you end up with.

Whatever size you make it, this looks like a fun project for holding trinkets or everyday items. The mouth of the fish is the mouth of the bag, and it closes with a drawstring that is also the strap. I wonder, too, if you could make one of these with a small clasp frame that could be the fish’s mouth and then you could just work I cord straps that would attach to the sides of the fish.

I could also see stripes, or fish of different colors to use up your yarn leftovers. How about a sunglasses case with a little loop to attach to your bag? Once you start thinking about all the ways you could use a fish-shaped bag in your life, I think you’ll see that you probably need more than one.

If you make one of these I would love to know how it went!

You can grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Rat and Sea Witch]

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