Make a Sweater to Dupe a Fashion Brand

Free People is known for its casual, boho look, and sometimes spendy styles that cause knitters and crocheters to say “I can make that!”

Amanda Solomon was inspired by the fashions of Free People to design her Dupe Sweater, which looks like something they would carry. (I cannot confirm it’s a direct dupe but it looks like several things on their website.) The pattern is meant to embrace the effortless style Free People is known for while providing knitters with an effortless, meditative knit.

Her version is made with two strands of fingering weight yarn held together for a marled look. It’s worked in the round from the top down and has deep drop shoulders that go almost down to the elbow, and an oversized fit for a casual and comfy look. The sleeves look to be about three-quarter length, but you could make them longer if you want.

It has a faux seam up the center front of the sweater, and it looks like there might be seams on the sleeves as well (I’d guess there’s probably also one on the back but no photos show the back).

The pattern is available in nine sizes, but the pattern information on Ravelry doesn’t give the measurements, it only says that the pattern fits from XS to 5XL. If any of you happen to have a copy or buy a copy of this pattern and want to let me know the chest measurements, I’d love to add them to this post.

If you don’t have a bunch of fingering weight yarn sitting around to make this sweater with, you could also work with a single strand of DK weight. Or mix and match a bunch of leftover yarn with a single solid color held together for a cool marled effect.

You can grab your copy of this pattern from Ravelry.

[Photo: Amanda Solomon]

A Perfect Sweater to Knit if You’re New to Knitting Sweaters

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?