I have always loved the Icelandic yoked sweaters, and the easy way they knit, with so little finishing. This version, in bright colors of mohair is cropped, and has stovepipe sleeves with no shaping. Although the sample is a cardigan I have shown it as a pullover. Steeking, or creating a cardigan from a pullover by cutting the front and finishing the ends, is not a beginner skill, and will only be touched on here, but you will find many tips for this technique in Athena.

The Skill

The skills are not new, but putting them together into a finished garment is. There is no ribbing, though the cuffs and hem are done in 4 rows of knit and purl to keep them from rolling. The color work is very straight-forward. The two rows that use 2 colors at a time are designed to be a confindence builder.

You will need:

• Bulky yarn, about 600/700/800 yards of one,
  1 ball of two other colors.
• Size 13 needles, 16"
• Size 10 needles, 16"
• Size 5 needles, 16"
• Size G crochet hook

Sizes

S/M/L

Sleeves

With size 10 needles cast on 30/40/50 stitches. Place a stitch marker, and making sure the stitches are not twisted on the needle, join to beginning.

Purl 1 round. Knit 1 round. Purl 1 round.

Switch to size 13 needle, knit until sleeve measures 13"/15"/17". Cast off 5/10/15 stitches, and break off yarn with a 2' tail.

Repeat for other sleeve.

Body

With size 10 needles cast on 60/80/100 stitches. Place a stitch marker, and making sure the stitches are not twisted on the needle, join to beginning.

Purl 1 round. Knit 1 round. Purl 1 round.

Switch to size 13 needle, knit until body measures 7"/9"/11".

Cast off 5/10/15 stitches, knit 25/30/35, cast off 5/10/15, knit 25/30/35.

Join sleeves to body

Knit 25/30/35 sleeve stitches (all of one sleeve), knit 25/30/35 of body, knit 25/30/35 stitches of other sleeve.

Yoke chart

Work 20 rows of pattern. As you are knitting from right to left, begin knitting with the yarn color shown in the chart below at Start Here. leave the other color attached, but keep it out of the way. The pattern below is repeated 10/12/14 times on this sweater. You may want to put a marker for the beginning of each repeat, and a special marker for the beginning of the round. Begin a new row each time you come back to the marker.

When you come to a stair step, like in row 3, you must K2tog, or knit 2 together. This will gradually make your yoke smaller. You must work the decreases (k2tog's) for each repeat all the way around.

In row 4 you will use 2 colors. Do not pull the yarns tight, they must be able to relax to fit the rest of the yoke. You may want to practice this for a couple of rows. You may hold one yarn color in one hand and one yarn color in another hand. There is no set rule.

Switch to size 4 needle, knit 5 rounds. Cast off.

Sew underarm seams. One day you may want to sew these with the Kitchener Stitch, but maybe not on your first project :).

Weave in ends.

Cardigan

Machine stitches 2 rows of straight stitch along the center front about 1/2" apart. This is where your cardigan will open in front. Cut between the stitching lines. Using the cast off yarn color, single crochet* 3 rows for button placket starting at the hem, catching the sewn stitching, and a half knit stitch. This sweater is loose knit, so grab the stitching line and a whole knit stitch rather than less, if you're in doubt.

It is usually best to crochet less than 1 stitch per row. One-to-one will be too stretched out. Use 1 single crochet stitch to 1 knitted row, 3 times, then skip 1 knitted row. If this does not make a smooth placket adjust the single crochets to fit.

Repeat on other side.

*This is not taught online, please see Knitter's School in Knitter's Magazine. Most issues include Single Crochet.

Buttons

If you knit your Sheep's Clothing Sweater from 100% wool, you can make felted button balls, as shown.

For each ball use 2 yards of yarn. You can mix colors, as long as they're all wool.

With a little soap and hot water work the yarn into a ball between your hands. Switching the ball from hot to cold water while you are working it will help the felting.

When they are dry, cut each in half to make 2 flat-topped buttons, use as full balls as shown. Put one button at the top of the button placket on the left side (as you wear it) for girls, right side for boys. It should be as far from the top as it is from the outer edge. Don't sew this yet.

Place another button at the fullest part of the chest in line with the first button.

Place the next button between these 2. This is your spacing for the rest of the buttons, probably 2 more. For this kind of sweater it is not necessary to have a button on the bottom edge so you can be flexible, but an odd number of buttons is visually nice. Five or seven are better than 6. But all this said, do what you think looks best! Go ahead and sew on your buttons with matching yarn color and a large yarn needle.

Clasps

The clasps shown are made from bead store wire (sterling silver full round, half hard) and a pair of plyers. By using clasps, you don't have to plan for buttonholes!

Everything about this sweater has been planned for the beginning knitter, and yet the result is a stylish garment, sure to showcase the flair of the knitter/designer.

This sweater was knit for a benefit aucion for the St. Francis House in Sioux Falls, SD, and the high bidder was Georgia Navarro, shown at right. The yarns were Filatura di Crosa Baby Kid Extra Pink, Baby Kid Mohair. The final sweater weighed 11.9 oz. Designed by Natalie Sorenson, modeled by Nevada.