Knit a Classic Colorwork Yoked Sweater

The Pleasantville Pullover from Lion Brand Yarn is a pretty classic looking circular yoke, colorwork design. It uses four colors and is worked in the round from the top down.

The colorwork designs are pretty simple, and mostly done with slipped stitches (meaning you’re still only working with one color at a time) so this is a good one to try if you’ve never done colorwork before. The pattern is written out and there are charts if you’re learning how to read charts or just prefer them.

There’s additional colorwork at the bottom of the sweater and on the sleeves for a fun look. You could even use leftovers from other projects for some of the colorwork. While the pattern uses the same colors on the bottom and sleeves as were used in the yoke, you could use different colors there, or different shades of the same colors if you want to. It’s your sweater so you can do what you want!

It calls for Lion Brand Local Grown, which as of this writing is a new product for them. It’s a 100 percent wool yarn that is made from America-raised and shown sheep and that’s also processed in the United States. It comes in 15 colors that all look great together, so it’s a good choice for colorwork projects. And because its worsted weight you’re sure to find lots of different ways you want to use it.

The sweater comes in three sizes and can be worn with a lot of ease or less as you like. The smallest size has a chest measurement of around 40 inches, while the largest is 58 inches. It’s rated easy but it would be helpful to have comfort with working in the round before casting on.

Get the free pattern or purchase a kit with all the yarn you need from Lion Brand.

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]

One of the fun things about knitters is that we will use a holiday theme on any kind of project. From Easter bunny socks to Christmas sweaters, there’s no combination of holiday motif and knitwear genre we won’t combine.

Case in point: Halloween cowls.

This fun cowl from Sweet Vireo Designs features large carved pumpkins and little cats and skulls. It uses two colors of DK weight yarn and I love the multicolored yarn for the background color on this one. And the braids! So cute.

Spooky Season by Jocelyn Tunney (also on Ravelry) uses fingering weight yarn in two colors to make a design with crescent moons and eyes. There are two circumferences and two heights available so you can make it a neck hugger or a slightly bigger project if you like.

Make more moons with the Broom Riding Cowl from Vanessa Ewing Knits. This two color pattern looks extra fun with a multicolored yarn for the colorwork, but you can use a solid as well. It calls for DK weight yarn but there is also a fingering weight version if you have some yarn in your stash you want to use.

Jinx Made has another fun Halloween cowl, this time covered in skulls. South Philly Skulls uses DK weight yarn and comes in two lengths, and there’s also a matching hat pattern, both of which can be found on Ravelry.

The Ghost Stories cowl from Melissa Knit Wear is a two-color cowl with ghosts of different sizes on the body. It uses DK weight yarn, and average sized skeins will allow you to get two cowls out of two skeins. It also calls for stitch markers to help you keep your place in the chart.

Or stitch up a cowl with a giant bat on it. The Nightling Cowl from Jen Immer uses DK weight yarn in two colors and has moons and a large bat on it. This pattern can be found on Ravelry.

How about spooky trees? The Weirwood Cowl from Andrea Krüß-Anders is inspired by the weirwood trees in the Game of Thrones books, and is worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn. You can find this free pattern on Ravelry.

If a bandana cowl is more your thing, try Cowloween from Tellybean Knits (on Ravelry). This colorful design is worked from the top down and features pumpkins, ghosts and candy colored stripes, and is worked in a light fingering weight yarn. There are kid and adult sizes available.

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