Twice I’ve bought sweater patterns and lots of yarn to knit them, and both times I’ve not been able to accomplish the patterns. Since I have all this yarn to use up, I’ve kept an eye out for a simple sweater to knit.
The Turtle Dove sweater pattern has raglan sleeves and also droopy underarms. What is that called? Bat wing? Anyway the armpit area is long. It’s not my favorite type of sweater, but the finished projects, knit by others, look quite nice. You can see them at Ravelry. It also looks comfortable. And, oh ya, it is a FREE pattern..!! Yes, that drew me in.
I’m not an experienced sweater knitter, and after my last two tries at knitting were flops – the Oxbow disaster really turned me off – I swore I wouldn’t knit a sweater this year. But all that yarn, stacked up in my spare bedroom, kept stressing me out. I needed to use it for something.
Beginning Sweater – #1
I used Arranmore yarn for my first attempt. This was frogged because I did the short row shaping in the wrong place. I didn’t understand the marker placement.
I ripped out the yellow knitting and began again with Brooklyn Tweed’s Quarry. (My photos on this page are of the same yarn, but the color “Geode” photographs very differently.)
First, I researched “how to knit a raglan sleeve sweater”. I discovered that raglan sweaters are supposedly the easiest type to knit. You mark out your sleeves and make increases. The pattern began to make sense when I realized this.
I’m writing this page because I couldn’t find answers to my questions about this pattern. And, I’m not the only one who had questions.
Sketching Out the Pattern Increases
The marker set up row is separating out the sleeves, and marking the front of the sweater and the back. The markers DO NOT show the center of these areas, which was my mistake. The pattern does say that the markers denote the “divisions” between the areas. For some reason this did not click with me. Duh.
I had to draw out the directions. When I sketched out the marker placements and where the increases would be, I first thought that the right and left sleeves were mixed up. Then, it occurred to me that I am knitting the sweater upside-down, so the R and L labels were correct, of course.
Knitting the Turtle Dove
On the “marker setup row” first you knit the smaller amount of stitches, and place the marker – those stitches are the sleeve stitches, also called raglan stitches in this pattern.
Knitting around and placing four markers gives you both sleeve placements – the sleeves are within that smaller number of stitches. Knowing this, gives you a feel for the back and front areas of the sweater, which you need to know for placement of the German short rows at the back of the neck.
German Short Rows and Video Help
To begin the short row shaping, the pattern directions say to “knit across the right sleeve, front, and left sleeve, and then begin short rows. The short rows will go between that last sleeve marker and the BOR / back stitch marker. This area is the back of the sweater.
Neck knitting will become a fold-over turtleneck, and those are my short rows.
I’ve never knit German Short Rows before, but after watching the Purl Soho video I did them just fine. The pattern suggests watching Very Pink Knits video, and it may be the one I list here, but I preferred the Purl Soho video.
These links go to YouTube: Very Pink Knits and Purl Soho. Very Pink Knits also has a slow motion video.
Raglan Increases
Now that I can “see” the pattern, when I get to the section where I will “Begin raglan increases” the rounds make sense. On Round 1 increases will be made before and after every marker. In the pattern they are called “raglan markers”. On Round 3 the increases are made at the front and back sections only – next to the markers.
Sweater front
Needles and Sizes I Used
This is my info, and you will use the needle sizes to get gauge for your project – it will depend on the yarn and how you knit. Gauge is listed in the pattern.
The pattern suggests using a smaller needle size for the ribbing to begin, but I used a size 11, which I am also using for the sweater. I tend to be a tight knitter and I did not want a tight rib around my neck. I knit the rib for 5 inches, to have a good roll down. I decided that I didn’t want the neck to stick up. I’ve tried it on and the neck is fine.
I cast-onto a 16 inch needle, following the directions for a size Medium, using the Old Norwegian cast-on – or something like it. (By the way, if you do change needle sizes after the neck, continue to use a 16 inch length needle – once the stitches get crowded, switch to a 32 inch length.)
When my stitches became crowded again, I bought a longer (40 inch) circular needle. I am knitting with yarn that is quite bulky.
This is a pattern by Espace Tricot, which offers all their patterns for free! What? That is what their Ravelry page says. Based in Canada, they have a YouTube Podcast, website (for their yarn store), Ravelry page and forum, and a blog. Yay, a new designer to follow! I will be looking into all this furtherbecause I see that they offer some really nice FREE patterns!
More Free Sweater Patterns by Espace Tricot
Gingerbread Sweater – new raglan pattern that uses two yarns held together, or use a heavier single yarn for knitting.
Bright Side – also a classic raglan pattern knit with fingering weight yarn.
Calliope – Raglan with expanding rib at neck and long rib on sleeves. I have knit this sweater and you can see the Calliope page here.
I have fallen in love with the washable Lorna’s Laces Sportmate yarn. I decided to knit the Polliwog Popover with the gray (Dobson) and blue (Cermak) colors I recently bought on sale. It’s a little sweater with a unique neckline for babies or young children. It is a great pattern for a little boy. The pattern is by Mary Lou Egan and I found it in my copy of “Drop Dead Easy Knits” (link to the book below).
The title mentions easy, so none of the patterns should be difficult – you would think. However, as I have been knitting this baby top, I’ve run into some difficulty.
Polliwog Troubles, Mistakes and My Personal Fixes
First of all let me suggest that whenever you choose to knit a pattern search for possible errata – or changes to a pattern due to direction corrections. A mistake here and there is understandable. No one is perfect. I’ve noticed that patterns often have an errata listed.
Most knitwear designers have test knitters, who will all knit up a pattern and give feedback, including catching pattern mistakes. So the fact that the Polliwog was included in a book, but contains numerous mistakes, is disappointing … and annoying.
IMPORTANT: If you plan to knit this PATTERN, go to the Ravelry Polliwog Popover pattern page where the designer lists the mistakes on the page. Take note of them and make fixes on the pages in the book before you begin knitting. The first mistake was the number of stripes to knit for the body.
But I had more troubles than just the ones listed, so I wanted to share my woes here. In the end, I really like the top. It is soft and cute and works well for a boy or girl. It would be a breeze to knit again now that I have made my changes to the pattern and provided notes to myself.
I may actually sew down those flaps on the front, but I’ll see how it looks after washing.
Polliwog Popover – done!
Check Your Gauge!
First, I strongly suggest you knit a swatch to find your gauge. Usually I have to go up a needle size to make my gauge correct. This time I did not knit a swatch and used the suggested size 4US needle, but I should have used a 3 or maybe even a 2.
The sweater is WAY bigger than even the measurements for the largest size (12-24 months), and now I fear I may run out of blue yarn (I didn’t – see my yarn photo below). I’m following the smallest size (6-9 months) directions. So my gauge is way off. I’m thinking it would fit a one-year old. This is my own fault, and not a fault with the pattern. I should have found the correct gauge before I began.
Knitting Stripes That Align
I was no expert at knitting stripes, but after making all the stripes on the body and sleeves of this sweater, I consider myself an accomplished stripe-knitter. And for the most part, my stripes align pretty well. This is how I did it.
Row 1 (of 3 knit in same color) – when adding / changing colors, bring the new color up behind the old to tug the little area closed.
Row 2 – when you reach the BOR (beginning of round) marker, and are ready to begin knitting row 2, lift the right side of the knit stitch below the row onto the LEFT needle and knit through both strands. This will make the first worked stitch of the row look like only 2 stitches when the rest of the row will have 3. This makes the rows of color line up nicely. You can see this in my photo below on the BOR seam of a sleeve.
Row 3 – knit around… begin again at row 1 when you change to the new color.
Aligning the rows of stripes
The Shaping
Once I had the front section shaping on the left shoulder completed, I felt pretty good. I had managed to do the short rows and then knit them up fine.
Shaping the front
My troubles began when I had to do a similar thing on the Right Shoulder. The stitches are opposite and the directions to “slip the stitch and pull the yarn over the needle to create a double stitch” did not work because you end with a purl stitch. Or maybe you just pull the lumpy thing over and call it two stitches ???, but it looked bad. I tried searching YouTube for help and found nothing that made sense.
After wasting lots of time trying to figure out what to do – after all this was going to be the neckline of the sweater – I used my notes from a little scarf I began a while ago. On the Ruffle scarf you create a number of short rows, or wrap and turns. I could do that simple thing when knitting the scarf, so I simply did the same thing for the Popover. I did the same when working the back sections as well.
Short Rows on Right Side Shoulder
Here is how I did my turns on that right side – front and back sections of the sweater.
When I got to the end of the row the yarn was forward because I ended with a purl stitch. I kept the yarn forward, in front, and slipped a stitch from the Left needle to the Right needle. Then I turned the work and brought the yarn forward again. Slipped a stitch once more from left to right and began knitting in pattern back to the end of the row.
Super easy, looked fine, and easy to pick up each knit and purl on the finishing row. No stitches needed to be knit together.
The Neckline Bind-Off
Here is where my blood pressure rose once again. First of all the patterns says, “work a sewn bind-off … as described in the Techniques section”. So I flipped to the back and found the page for Techniques. None of the technique titles were for a “sewn bind-off”. I finally decided it must be the “K1, P1 Bind Off” because it called for using a tapestry needle. I didn’t like the sounds of that.
Reading through the long directions for this type of bind-off I began to have serious doubts about my ability to not mess it up! So I knit up a little swatch in the knit 1, purl 1 ribbing to try it out. I couldn’t figure it out. It was a disaster. So I looked on YouTube. Even watching videos describing this sewn bind-off, and following along on my swatch, I gave up after making a complete mess of it. This was not easy, even after watching a video.
Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off
I really didn’t want to have to use a tapestry needle, but I knew I would need a stretchy bind off for the neckline. I’d heard of Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy bind off, but never bothered to look into what it entailed. Now I decided to see if I could handle it. I’m so glad I did. And yes, it is VERY stretchy, and EASY!
This is a very easy bind-off to use for anyone. Once it was done, I believe it looks just fine. See my photo below.
As is usually the case, I had to watch a couple of videos to find one I liked. Here is a link to the YouTube video for Jeny’s bind off that helped me – she goes super slow considering it’s super simple to knit.
As I’ve read some notes by knitters of this garment, a few have said that the neckline is too loose and flaps open. Now I am wondering if a normal bind-off would work because of the way the neckline overlaps to make an extra large opening anyway. I don’t have a baby to try it out on.
Finished look of Jeny’s bind off
Jeny’s Bind-Off Written Directions
You don’t need to watch the video because it is easy to explain how to do Jeny’s bind-off. And at least now I know how to do it.
Do This: You are ready to bind off – on the right side – and are holding an empty RH needle. Begin by first wrapping the yarn around the RH needle clockwise. This is opposite of how you would make a Yarn Over. Then, knit the first stitch and pass that wrapped stitch over the knit – like a regular bind-off.
Now, wrap yarn clockwise again, which will give you 2 stitches on the RH needle. Knit the next stitch – giving you 3 stitches (my image below). Bind off by passing the first two stitches over the one recently knit. (I did not deal with alternating knits and purls. Honestly I don’t know if I should have. I was so fed up at this point I just wanted to be done!)
With three stiches on the RH needle, slip the first 2 over the last – as in a regular bind-off
Continue to wrap clockwise before knitting, passing two stitches over one, and so forth. Super EASY! And yes, it is also super stretchy. I guess lots of people use this bind off for toe-up socks so the cuff is not tight. Believe me, it works. I think I could get my big head through this neckline!
The Polliwog Sleeves
To begin the sleeve, first the two sections of the shoulder have to be overlapped. Then stitches have to be picked up, sometimes going through two layers of knitting. I used a crochet hook to pick up stitches through two layers.
Also, pick up through nearly every stitch, or the count will be short. I had to re-do my pick ups for this reason. I used DPN’s but quickly became fed up with them and ordered a 9-inch circular needle to finish the sleeve.
First sleeve transferred to new 9 inch circular needle.
I have a few small circular needles for knitting small round things like mittens, so this new size five, nine-inch circular has been added to my collection. They are totally worth it if you hate using DPNs. I was able to knit all the way to the sleeve cuff and bind-off using the small circular needle. (I did a regular bind-off here, not the “sewn bind off”.)
Knitting the sleeve
I will say that I love Lorna’s Laces yarn. The blue color is slightly variegated and looks really nice. I will be washing it in my machine and throwing it into the dryer for a little bit to see how it ends up. (Directions for washing this yarn are: Machine wash cold with like colors. Machine dry until just damp. Lay flat to finish.)
I did not have a lot of blue yarn left, but as I said, the garment turned out large. After washing (and drying) it seems that either the sleeves should be longer or the body should be shorter. It’s hard to tell.
How Much Yarn is Needed?
Once I finished knitting, below you can see how much yarn was left of the 2 skeins I used. Each skein has 270 yards and I had leftover yarn. The pattern sample uses Swan’s Island washable wool which contains even more yarn per skein (360 yards) and the pattern calls for 2 skeins of the Main Color – which in my case was the blue. So I used less than 270 yards altogether (blue) – less than one skein. And remember that my sweater came out extra large.
Used up nearly all my blue yarn.
Drop Dead Easy? Not This One
The Drop Dead Easy Knits book contains a wide variety of projects. As others have also noted, in comments on Amazon, they are not all that easy! “Easy” is relative. To a fairly experienced knitter, yes, they would probably be easy. To a beginner, not so much. And maybe the writers meant this when putting the book together.
I don’t consider myself a beginner, as I have knit lots of various items in the last couple of years including two sweaters for myself, but the problems I had knitting this one made it unenjoyable. This Polliwog Popover should be simple, but with the mistakes and issues I’ve had with it, I would not label it as so. It was a headache. However, if decided to knit it again, it will be easier, thanks to all my notes!
More From the Drop Dead Easy Book
If you don’t expect all patterns to be easy, the book is still a good one. When I first searched through I was disappointed to find sweater and sock patterns. I don’t consider sweaters to be easy, and I dislike knitting socks. But then again some knitters may consider these items to be “easy”. And lots of people knit socks. The book offers a very wide variety of items to try, from blankets and shawls, to mitts, hats, bags, and even a dog jacket!
I’ve already knit the very easy Shandy Headband (my photo below). Along with the baby sweater I just wrote all about, these two items are my only experience with the patterns in the book. I will be trying more. It’s a very nice book.
Since I began to knit again, only a few months ago, I’ve saved sweater patterns. They are saved to my “favorites” section at Ravelry, and pinned to my knitting board at Pinterest. I even bought a book of children’s sweaters called Baby Botanicals (image link below) mistakenly thinking that a small sweater might be easier. Ha! Guess I did not learn my lesson from trying to knit booties. Small knitting projects can be just as complicated, or worse, than big ones!!!
As I perused the loooong patterns within this baby sweater book, I gave up on the idea of sweater knitting. Or at least, I had to find something super simple to begin with. Were any types of sweaters simple to knit?
I can’t answer this question yet, but I have decided on one to try. If I don’t jump in and give it a go, I will never know if I have what it takes to create a wearable item of clothing. After much searching, I chose the Umpqua Sweater by Caitlin Hunter. I’ve looked at a lot of sweater patterns and this one tugged at me right away. The sample is knit in a tweed yarn and has a wide yoke with an arrow-like design. Of course you can choose your own favorite yarn to use, which I did. Here’s how that happened.
Finding the Right Sweater Yarn
This is what has held me back from beginning a sweater:
Besides finding a pattern I could follow easily, sweater-knitting requires lots of yarn. Sweater knitting requires many needle sizes as well because the sleeves require DPN’s and sometimes other areas need smaller or larger needles. This all mean expenses beyond what is required to knit a hat or scarf. It costs (lots of) money to buy all the required notions.
Sweaters can be knit top-down or bottom-up and I had no idea which would be easier, or if there was a difference. Pullover or cardigan? Interesting cables and colors or plain and simple? After I began my sweater I found this Top-Down vs Bottom-Up Sweater Construction article which has good points to consider.
Also, I live in Florida. I am never going to wear a sweater – well, rarely. I don’t have that to look forward to. But I do travel to New Hampshire occasionally, where I would be able to show off my knitwear. The fact that I can’t enjoy wearing my finished sweater is a bummer.
The Umpqua Sweater is My Number One!
The Umpqua pattern is knit in worsted weight yarn, and I liked that. The Brooklyn Tweed “Shelter” yarn, used by the designer, was a bit pricey and was hand-wash only, so I looked around for something else. There are a lot of pretty worsted weight yarns to choose from. I needed something soft, warm and easy to care for.
It turned out that I got an e-mail the same day from a local yarn shop advertising the re-stocking of Malabrigo Rios yarn, so I checked out the description and colors offered. I’ve never used ‘Rios’ yarn, but do love Malabrigo yarn in general. And the colors were very nicely variegated which I thought would work well for this sweater. Also it claims to be “soft, warm and washable”. Perfect! (So far I can vouch for the “soft” part of that statement).
Finding the Right Color Yarn For My Sweater
Once I decided to use Rios, I looked on the Malabrigo site. This Rios yarn page shows the beautiful colors and has little “closer look” and ” sweater” icons in the top corner of each color. The “sweater” link goes to Pinterest where you can see each particular yarn knit up into items. This is a wonderful thing!
Often it is difficult to imagine a skein of yarn turned into a project, but here you have links to some things already knit up. The Rios yarn page is where I found my perfect sweater colors.
I decided that I loved the “Whole Grain” color for the main sweater color (my gauge swatch is the image for this post). Then I chose two others for the yoke pattern. “Aguas” is beautiful, but my second choice, “English Rose” is debatable. It’s very pretty, but I may want something different to sit alongside the blue-green color once I get to the colorwork part of the sweater. IF I ever get that far!
L-R, English Rose, Aquas, and Whole Grain – Malabrigo “Rios” worsted yarn.
“Wool and Company” Had All My Color Choices
I really wanted to support my local yarn stores (they are not close, but I could order from them), but neither one had these colors in their shop. I think one of them had the English Rose, but most yarn stores offer “free shipping” over a certain amount. I didn’t want to split my order and have to pay shipping fees. (For the most part I refuse to pay for shipping.)
Somehow, I stumbled across “Wool and Company” and ta da… they had every color I was interested in! AND they offer Free US Shipping – no matter the size of the order! What? On top of all that, they will wind yarn for no extra charge! Double what..???? Yes, they offer complimentary ball winding. All I had to do was ask at checkout in the comments section (see my comment below). So I asked for the 6 balls of my Main Color to be wound. That is what you see in the photo above (3 of the 6 they wound for me, for free!). I don’t have a winder, so I have to create balls of yarn from skeins and wind them from draping the yarn over my knees. To have all those skeins ready to go was immensely helpful. Wool and Company is my new favorite place to shop for basic yarn online.
I do love Miss Babs, and other hand-spun / hand-dyed shops for their unique offerings, but Wool and Company had the name brand yarn I wanted when I could not find it elsewhere.
Pink pen is their writing…. Awesome!
Wool and Company’s shipping was quite fast. They are in Illinois and I am in Florida. I got the yarn – 8 skeins, 6 wound by them – in 6 days. Not bad.
Now all I have to do is create a nice sweater from this lovely yarn. Fingers crossed… here I go. I’m currently figuring the guage.
New England's Narrow Road 