happy scrappy sweater

Start the new year right! Use up those scrap yarn to make room for new ones! :D

And get some knit­ting looms! So you can make this hap­py scrap­py loom-knit­ting sweater! :D

*Dis­claimer: I have not received com­pen­sa­tions for any knit­ting loom man­u­fac­tur­ers* (but maybe I should…)

I just… love the sim­plic­i­ty, the rus­tic fish­er­man look, the dou­ble thick, super warm fabric.

So! If you have a knit­ting loom, or if you’d like to get one and try your hands on loom knit­ting, here’s how this raglan sweater was made. 

(Haven’t tried loom knit­ting much but want to tack­le a sweater project? No fear! I’ll have video tuto­ri­als through­out to show you dif­fer­ent stitch­es. I did start with mak­ing hats and head­bands first but the sweater real­ly isn’t much harder.)

I used:

A 41-peg round loom (the largest in the set). I got mine in a set by Loops & Threads at Michaels (for medi­um to bulky yarn). It was about $20 and I had a 55% off coupon so it end­ed up being quite affordable.

Worsted weight yarn. I knit­ted with 2 strands of yarn held togeth­er through­out. I had a large ball of over 1000 yards of for­est green (I can’t remem­ber what brand and lost the label) that I used through­out, then just added dif­fer­ent colours of scrap yarn as I went. 

6 mm cro­chet hook for cast­ing on. Small­er hook for weav­ing in ends.

Yarn nee­dle (that came with the loom set).

Siz­ing:

The size I made was 33″ around. I would have liked it larg­er. Giv­en that I’m on the small scale of humans, I’m going to write the pat­tern for 37″ so it might work for more peo­ple. 37″ is the largest size the loom can make, for this pat­tern. Below are the approx­i­mate mea­sure­ments, with 2 stitch­es = 1″ and 3 rows = 1″. The actu­al mea­sure­ments for your sweater may vary depend­ing on the kind of yarn you use.

Pat­tern:

Notes: 

Knit with 2 strands of yarn held togeth­er through­out. I used one colour con­sis­tent­ly and just added dif­fer­ent colours of scrap yarn. To change colour, I sim­ply cut the work­ing yarn and tie on a dif­fer­ent colour. Very high-tech ;)

The pat­tern con­sists of 4 pieces: front, back, 2 sleeves. They’re sewn togeth­er in the 4 diag­o­nal seams from under arm to col­lar, then sleeves are sewn togeth­er under the arm, and the sides are sewn together. 

Wher­ev­er “knit” or “k” is indi­cat­ed in the pat­tern, it means the e‑wrap stitch.

Front/Back (make 2):

Cast on all the pegs around the loom using this chain cast on method with a cro­chet hook, but don’t join in the round. I tend to cast on quite tight­ly so that the edges are as neat as pos­si­ble (41 sts.)

Work k1 p1 rib for 6 rows. (video tuto­r­i­al for k1 p1 rib here)

Con­tin­ue knit­ting using the e‑wrap stitch (e‑wrap video here) until piece reach 13″. 

Now we begin decreas­ing towards the col­lar (yoke).

Yoke row 1: In the next row, decrease 1 by mov­ing the loop on the last peg to the one next to it, e‑wrap and knit off the 2 bot­tom loops on peg. Con­tin­ue knit­ting until 2 stitch­es remain. Move the loop on the last peg to the sec­ond last peg, e‑wrap and knit off the 2 bot­tom loops on peg. Decrease done! Sim­ple, right? (Here’s a decrease video to sum­ma­rize the action)

Yoke rows 2–3: Knit 2 rows even.

Repeat yoke rows 1–3 eight more times, then work yoke row 1 (decrease row) once more. 28 rows in yoke alto­geth­er, 21 stitch­es remain.

Work k1 p1 rib for 5 rows. 

Bind off (bind off video here).

Sleeves (make 2):

Chain cast on (same as front/back) 19 sts. 

Work k1 p1 rib for 5 rows.

Sleeve row 1–7: Knit 7 rows even.

Sleeve row 8 (increase): knit 2, make 1 (m1), knit until 2 stitch­es remain, m1, knit 2. (make 1 video here — the per­son in the video uses a dif­fer­ent knit stitch method but you can con­tin­ue using the e‑wrap for this)

Repeat sleeve rows 1–8 sev­en more times — 64 rows alto­geth­er, increased to 35 sts.

Now we decrease for shoul­der.

Shoul­der row 1: knit 1 row even.

Shoul­der row 2: decrease 1, knit till 2 stitch­es remain, decrease (see yoke row 1 above).

Repeat shoul­der rows 1–2 thir­teen more times, 28 rows alto­geth­er in shoul­der, 7 stitch­es remain.

Work k1 p1 rib for 5 rows. Bind off.

Assem­bly:

With wrong side fac­ing, and using one strand of yarn only (to reduce bulk), sew raglan seams togeth­er con­nect­ing sleeve pieces to front and back pieces. Sew sleeve togeth­er under the arm and con­tin­ue sewing togeth­er the sides. Repeat with oth­er sleeve/side.

Voilà!

And! I got this incred­i­ble t‑rex wood­en sculp­ture from a dear friend :D Isn’t it the most awe­some thing?

If you do give it a try do drop me a line! Cheers to a fan­tas­tic roar­ing year! 

  

 

4 thoughts on “happy scrappy sweater

  1. Il est bien joli ce pull et il sem­ble bien chaud et con­fort­able. Je ne pen­sais pas que l’on pou­vait réaliser un pull avec ce métier cir­cu­laire! j’avais , en revanche, vu récemment sur Rav­el­ry un très beau châle, mais le métier util­isé était droit (ou rectangulaire).

  2. It is indeed very warm and thick! I have seen shawls made with long or rec­tan­gu­lar looms before but have no idea how it’s done… I just got a long loom for Christ­mas so it’s time to inves­ti­gate! :D

  3. I’m new to loom­ing things out­side of scarves, so I’m sad to say I don’t quite know what you mean when you say, “Sleeve row 1–7: Knit 5 rows even.”
    Does it mean knit only 5 rows and men­tal­ly call it 7 or do you knit 35 rows (5 rows for every 1 of 7 rows)?

  4. Hi Tom! I’m so sor­ry, this was an error! Sor­ry about the con­fu­sion and thank you for point­ing this out! I must have been think­ing about 5 but it’s actu­al­ly 7. So you would just knit the first 7 rows of sleeve even (with­out increas­ing or decreas­ing). Hap­py loom knitting!

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