Professor Pullover Knitting Pattern, Plus Knitting with Stripes

There’s nothing better than a roomy, boxy sweater on a cold day. It’s just so cozy and easy to wear over leggings (or, let’s be real, pajama pants) and they’re pretty quick and easy to knit as well.

Perfectly Knotted’s Professor Pullover is a great example of a cozy, boxy, oversized sweater (it’s meant to be worn with 15 to 25 percent positive ease) that also has great style because of the addition of simple stripes.

The sweater is a top-down raglan style and offers sizes from 30 to 70 inches in 4-inch increments. There’s also a modification for broad shoulders.

The Professor Pullover is available on Ravelry.

It got me thinking about how much I love a good stripe pattern. While this pattern has the stripes planned for you, did you know there’s such a thing as a random stripe generator? This would be so fun to use if you’re planning a stash-busting project or just wanted to combine a few colors in the same project in an interesting way.

I’ve also used part of the Fibonacci sequence to make stripes. This is where the last two numbers are added together to make the next number (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13…).

If you’re working stripes in a project and don’t want to cut the yarn every time your color changes, here are some ways to carry yarn up the side of the project while knitting stripes.

Also, do you know the history of stripes? I shared this post back in 2013 and had since forgotten what I’d learned, so you should check it out, too!

And speaking of raglans, have you ever wanted to design your own? This post shares designer Kristen Ten Dyke’s process for designing a raglan. It is, of course, math heavy, but she uses spreadsheets to make it easier.

Looking for more great top down sweater patterns? I shared 15 fantastic top-down sweater knitting patterns here.

[Photo: Perfectly Knotted.]

A few years ago I wrote a post that was full of patterns for knit mushrooms, but I don’t think I ever did a post that was knitting patterns with mushrooms on them, so today’s the day.

I love the Fungi Beanie from Jacki Bean, which calls for worsted weight yarn and uses duplicate stitch to add the mushrooms and other details. I think the colors she used for the design are tonal/multicolor so it doesn’t use as many colors as it looks like, but you can use whatever red, green, brown and white yarn you have in your stash for those details.

How about some mushroom socks? The Magic Toadstool sock form Stone Knits includes a ring of mushrooms around the leg, contrasting heel and toe and a little more colorwork at the toe for extra cuteness. As shown it uses four colors and comes in three sizes.

Or there’s the Fairy Ring Socks from Katie Green, which have mushrooms of two sizes on the legs, plus a bit of wavy grass. They have a contrasting cuff, heel and toe and some colorwork flecks in the body of the sock as well. This one is available in eight sizes to fit everyone from a baby to an XL adult.

This trippy cowl from Hunt Hand Knits looks like a lot of fun to knit. The Fungus Among Us Cowl is shown using four colors of DK weight yarn, though you can do it with as few as two if you’d rather.

Stitch some mushroom mittens with this cute pattern from Holly C Watson. This design uses three colors, and it’s shown with a self-striping yarn on the mushroom caps, which makes the colors change without you having to do any work. The pattern is charted but it’s a pretty easy repeat. The mittens are one size.

If you don’t feel like knitting mushrooms but still want to give your project a touch of the forest, the Toadstools Cardigan from Julie Taylor may be what you’re looking for. It’s stitched as a plain cardigan worked in DK weight yarn and sized for newborns up to 4 years old. The mushrooms are added with embroidery and the pattern includes the design, which you can trace onto water soluble stabilizer to stitch the mushrooms onto your sweater. Or anything else you want. You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

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