Knit a Classic Striped Henley

August 12, 2024 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

I have said this before, but henleys are probably my favorite type of sweater, especially for the non-winter months since a lot of the patterns for them I have seen tend to use lighter weight yarn.

I collected some henley sweater patterns here if you want to dive deeper into this genre.

The Old River Road sweater from Kay Hopkins recently caught my eye because it’s a classic henley look with a few fun details that elevate the design.

First, can we talk about the contrasting color on the button band? So cute. And it’s a super easy thing to do that makes it look handmade. The bands are also worked in double knitting (a little project like this is a great place to learn if you don’t already know this technique) which makes them look great on both sides.

The henley opening is deep so you’ll be working flat for a while, but the bottom part of the sweater is worked in the round. It features an easy allover textured stitch pattern that makes vertical lines, plus narrow, contrasting color stripes on the body and sleeves. Make the stripes all the same color, use an ombre or pull out your mini skeins to make stripes of a variety of colors. It looks like you’ll need nine buttons as well.

The design comes in 11 sizes and is worked in sport weight yarn. Finished chest measurements range from 35 to 69 inches, or 89 to 175.5 cm, and it’s intended to be worn with around 4 inches/10 cm of positive ease. You can always include more ease if you like, and you can make it longer if you want a completely cozy, wear with anything kind of top. Which you know I might just want that.

You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Kay Hopkins]

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A Perfect Little Ribbed Sweater Knitting Pattern

Last year I shared with you Maxie’s Tank Top by Ainur Berkimbayeva, mostly because I really wanted to knit one (and I still do, maybe this year I’ll finally get to it!). I also am really attracted to patterns that seem to look good on everyone, which this tank top does.

Now Ainur has released a sweater version of the top, known as Maxie’s V-neck, and it seems to have that same wonderful property of looking amazing on everyone, at least as far as I can tell from the pattern’s project page on Ravelry.

This is a top down, V-neck, ribbed top that can be knit with short or long sleeves. Bust darts help with the fit. There are also 13 size options available so you can find just the right fit for you.

The sizes are designed to fit actual bust measurements ranging from 29-32 inches (74-81.5 cm) up to 62-64 inches (158-162.5 cm) and the pattern has instructions for A-C cups, with modification notes in the pattern to help folks with D+ cups make their sweater fit them.

It calls for sport weight yarn, which is probably the only thing that kept me from casting on this sweater immediately when I first saw it because that’s not a yarn weight I typically have in my stash (certainly not in sweater quantity).

Which just gives me an excuse to go shopping! Ainur used Purl Soho Wigeon yarn, which is 100 percent wool from the Falkland Islands. You can check the pattern page for other options that people have used, though wool seems to be a near universal choice as of this writing.

Ainur also does pay what you can on her patterns so if the cost is too much for your current financial situation you can use a code on the page to get a discount. (That said, if you can afford it, please support designers to the extent they ask to be compensated!)

Check out the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Ainur Berkimbayeva]

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