Play with Textures in the Doodles Sweater Knitting Pattern

I know summer is still a ways off where I live, but I’m already starting to think about/long for the garments I’ll want to knit and wear during the warmer seasons. If you happen to live somewhere it’s already the warmer season, maybe this one is for you.

The Doodles sweater by Yumiko Alexander strikes me as warm weather knitting because it’s semi translucent, light and airy. They used a yarn that’s a silk and cotton blend, which is perfect for luxurious summer knitting.

The pattern is worked flat in rectangles from the top down, and uses different stitches and techniques to play with different textures. It’s worked in knits, purls, eyelets and slipped stitches, sometimes with two strands of yarn held together and sometimes with a single strand for a more ethereal look.

Sleeves are optional and look to be knit separately from the body. You can choose more of a kimono-style sleeve or a sleeve that’s gathered at the cuff, and you can make the sleeves as long or as short as you like.

It’s a boxy boat neck design that’s super easy and comfortable to wear over a T-shirt or other lightweight top. The design comes in four sizes ranging from 45 to 57 inches (or 112.5 to 142.5 cm), which should tell you it’s meant to be worn with a fair bit of positive ease. The pattern doesn’t specify how much ease is recommended but you can use your own measurements and how much ease you tend to like as a guide.

The pattern also has three options for length so you can make it cropped or longer (the length options are 19.5, 22 and 23.75 inches, or 48.5, 55 and 62 centimeters).

This sweater looks like it would be a lot of fun to knit and to wear, and it will teach you some lessons about different ways to manipulate stitches to get a different look.

You can find the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Yumiko Alexander]

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One great thing to knit when the weather is warm (or honestly any other time) is dishcloths and washcloths. They are fun and easy projects and a great way to play with new skills. Pretty washcloths make cleaning a tiny bit more fun, and they’re great to have on hand as a quick addition to a store-bought gift.

The Daisy Delight Dishcloth from Yarnspirations is a fun one for using leftover bits of green in your cotton yarn stash. What looks like the bottom in the picture is actually the left side as you knit it, and each little color section is worked with its own ball of yarn, intarsia style.

That’s a little fiddly for a washcloth, but the effect is cute, and it’s a simple way to learn the basics of intarsia knitting (as well as reading a chart) if you don’t already have those skills.

One the knitting is done, you add the flowers with a bit of lazy daisy embroidery, which is really easy to do even if you’re not that into embroidery. You could also potentially add flowers in duplicate stitch if you’d rather.

This may be the most work you’ve put into a dishcloth, but isn’t it adorable? It would be fun to use as a hand towel through the spring and summer, and if you already have some leftover green yarn from other projects it should be pretty easy to do.

You could also take this same concept and make it different colors. All dark green stems with stars on top might be reminiscent of Christmas trees, or brown with daisy stitch on top in different colors could be trees in the fall.

However you stitch it, this looks like a fun little project for knitters who are comfortable with intarsia and reading charts or who are ready to try those skills.

You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations.

[Photo: Yarnspirations]

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