Knit a Colorful Vest for Layering

I know I have said this before, but in the last few years I’ve really become a fan of vests. They take less time to knit than a sweater, and you can wear them for more of the year, as a layer over long sleeves, short sleeves, or even over a sweater.

Trollabackarna by Sanne Bjerregaard is one vest knitting pattern that caught my eye recently.

This colorful, boxy vest calls for four colors of yarn, but it would be easy to use scraps for the colorwork and just change colors whenever you need to.

According to the pattern, Trollabackarna (which is in Sweden) is a place of peace:

Deep in the northeast of Skåne, the hills lie where legends and shadows exist side by side. The name is no coincidence — here, boulders stand like petrified giants, and the winding paths weave between roots and silent trees, as though they are guiding you — if you dare to follow.

The pattern is worked from the bottom up, starting with a twisted rib hem. The body is all two color stranded knitting, with the contrasting color worked in stripes (again, you can use one color or many here) in the round up to the armholes. The tops of the vest are worked flat and joined with a three-needle bind off.

The armholes and neckline are worked in twisted rib and folded over and sewn down to the inside after knitting.

The colorwork is charted, but this is so big and graphic it should be pretty easy for you even if you’re new to colorwork knitting or reading charts.

The pattern is available in seven sizes, meant to fit a chest circumference ranging from 32 to 53.5 inches/82-136 cm. It looks like each size has 3-4 inches/7.5-10 cm of positive ease. It calls for worsted weight yarn and the pattern is available for free in English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian and Swedish from Filcolana.

[Photo: Filcolana]

A Knit Vest to Get You Ready for Summer [Knitting]

Easy Knit Vests are Officially My Favorite [Knitting]

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork.

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn.

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look.

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me.

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round.

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.

Have you read?