How to Alter a Sweater Knitting Pattern to Make a Tunic

Like most years, this year I am trying to use more of my yarn stash, including odd balls and random bits left over from other projects. I also have a goal to knit or crochet at least one sweater every month to help with the goal.

My January sweater, I decided, was going to be a mix of blue and green yarns, in simple Stockinette stitch. I had tried to use some of these yarns together in a project a couple of years ago and I didn’t like how it turned out, so I had a bunch of yarn collected already to use.

Before the initial attempt at the blue and green sweater I had made a top-down raglan using red, orange and yellow yarn, so I thought I would try to replicate something like that. But I also didn’t really want to “design” a sweater for this purpose, so I started thinking about simple Stockinette stitch patterns I could use.

I was reminded of the Nutmeg sweater by Jenifer Stark (which is a free pattern on Ravelry), which I had knit years ago as one of my first ever sweaters. It’s worked in bulky yarn, but I figured if I combined a worsted weight with something lighter I could get pretty close to gauge.

Because it’s a top-down pattern I just started knitting, assuming I could adjust my stitch count on the fly if I needed to if my gauge was off. For once it turned out to be spot on.

But as I kept knitting, realizing I had a lot more yarn than I would need for a single sweater, I decided I wanted to knit a tunic (or sweater dress, even) instead. So I started increasing somewhat arbitrarily (and trying it on frequently) to ensure it would fit over my hips.

It turned out great and I decided to write out how to do it in case you don’t want to randomly increase and hope for the best. You can read all about how to alter a sweater knitting pattern into a tunic over at Our Daily Craft.

Have you ever done this? I’d love to hear how it turned out!

Next Pattern:

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]

Next Pattern:

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