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!

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn.

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small.

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches.

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come.

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you.

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?).

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry.

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns.

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]

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