Take it Easy with a Bulky, Textured Sweater

If you’re looking for a sweater that embodies afternoons sitting by the fire, reading and knitting with a favorite warm beverage at hand, it might just be the Easy-Going Sweater from Bernat.

It’s worked in chunky roving yarn, with an ample funnel neck, boxy shaping and an allover texture pattern. I think you’d call it a variation of fisherman’s rib, as it’s worked by knitting in the row below on some stitches in one round of the four-round repeat.

The sweater is worked from the bottom up in pieces, starting with twisted ribbing. The shoulder seams are sewn together, then you pick up stitches around the neckline and work the collar piece in the round before finishing sewing the rest of the project together.

It comes in six sizes and is meant to have a lot of positive ease. The actual size of the sweater ranges from 41 to 64 inches at the bust, or 104 to 157.5 cm. But the smallest size is meant to fit an actual chest measurement ranging from 28 to 34 inches, or 71 to 86.5 cm. If you’re in the middle of the sizing you may be able to choose a size that would give you less ease if you prefer, but it is meant to be a super cozy, oversized design.

The pattern page includes a video tutorial that walks you through how to do your swatch and demos a tiny version of the sweater in case you need any help working any of the stitches or putting it together. I would have said this wasn’t ideal as a first sweater because of the textured stitch pattern and because roving can be a little tricky to work with, but the video definitely helps if you have any questions.

The pattern has a skill level rating of easy and is available for free on the Yarnspirations website.

[Photo: Yarnspirations]

A Cabled Sweater to Span the Seasons

Go Bold with the Goran Sweater Knitting Pattern

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn.

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small.

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches.

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come.

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you.

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?).

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry.

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns.

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]

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