The Knitra Sweater - My Easter Knitting Project
- Jenny Walker
- May 11
- 7 min read
Cornwall has started to highlight the gaps in my wardrobe; lighter 4ply sweaters being the main ones for Springtime and early autumn (as well as summer evenings on the beach, no doubt). Wool is the ultimate fibre to keep me both warm and cool, and a 4ply creates a lighter weight sweater for the seasons. So when I saw Rebecca was publishing a pattern back in February that would fit the bill, and that Sarah had commissioned a custom dye for it exclusively for The Knit Lounge, I knew that it had to get on my needles rather quickly. As it turned out, the Knitra Sweater became my Easter Knitting Project.
The Wardrobe Gaps
It’s always good to look through your wardrobe to see what’s missing before you make something new; it cuts down on making clothes you wont reach for, and you can also start to spot your own colour trends and styles.
For me, I knew that I had had enough of my winter colours and wanted to bring back some pinks, seafoams and creams this year. I was also aware that although we are having long days of sunshine in Falmouth, there is quite a breeze that comes off the water as I walk into town, so I needed to create a lightweight wardrobe that kept me from freezing. The last thing that I have noted is that I want a couple of cropped sweaters that I can wear with skirts, dresses and shorts this summer. This is a new style for me, and I enjoy that it makes my legs look a little longer, but doesn’t cut my body off to make me look short - 13 inches from the underarm to hem is ideal for a cropped look for me.
My Yarn Choice
One of the main reasons that I wanted to knit the Kintra Sweater was the colours that Beth at Beehive Yarns had dyed to be paired with Baa Ram Ewe’s Eden 4ply.
Beth created ten 10g minis in creams, khakis, pinks and taupes to create the distinctive 1x1 colour work yoke on her classic sock yarn base. They are so pretty, and now that I have seen other versions in the wild, I can safely say that they offer endless possibilities! I knew that I wanted the creams and light pinks to create a distinctive stipe affect, and although I thought I had a colour scheme sorted out in my head for the darker colours, I actually ended up picking up the tones as I went along without a plan. It was like colouring with yarn, which I thoroughly enjoyed
The main yarn was Baa Ram Ewe’s 4ply Eden DK in the colour Claystone. I am struggling to find something that I don’t like about their yarns in general, as they are just so beautiful to work with. I am realising that the vast majority of my projects are knitted up with them. This was my first time with their 4ply which is 70% Organic British Wool and 30% Alpaca, with the resulting yarn offering a crips structure in the stitches and the final project, and the alpaca giving it the squish I wanted so that I could wear it next to my skin. It was important to me to have a softer project as I could envisage popping it on over a vest top at the beach for evening bbq’s, as well as tee-shirts during the spring as I walked down to the bookshop; the versatility was the important part in choosing the yarn.
The Gauge
The Kintra Sweater comes in both a DK and 4ply option when you purchase it, which I really liked, as it means that if you like knitting it in one weight, you also have the option to knit it for another season later.
The Colour-work Yoke: If you are thinking of knitting the pattern, I would suggest swatching both your colour-work and your stocking stitch separately even though this does take yarn away from your minis, as I had to go up a quarter size to get the stitch count to match. I used to skip this part of swatching thinking that my stocking stitch would be the same as my floats, but believe me, they never are! I am a tighter colour-work knitter, and it always needs a bit of extra ease.
The main body: It took me three tries to get gauge in stocking stitch, and I eventually ended up on a 3.75 needle, which gave the 4ply yarn a breezy drape without it looking as if it was the wrong needle for the yarn, (especially after the wool bloomed during the blocking process). The needle size also meant that I enjoyed a very relaxed knit!
The Knitra Knitting Pattern
If you are printing the pattern off, try to page select only the ones you need as there are far too many. My project was a size three, which honestly only needed four pages, and instead I ended up printing all 26. (It also irritated me that the sizes were not overly clear in their separation on the pages, just a bold type face to denote when you needed to pay attention.)
The thing to know is that the Kintra is a simple top down yoked sweater, with German Short rows after the colour-work to lift the back and then any length you like. The part that is unique is the colour chart. This being said, I threw the pattern away after I had done the yoke and made up my own hacks to fit my body. My suggestion is to either follow it if you are new to knitting and want this to be your first project, or, if you have a pattern that fits you and you love it, use the colour charts on the Knitra and knit the one you know. Personally, I just hacked the life out of it as I found the instructions overly written and not that clear.
My Hacks
I ended up shortening the yoke depth by quite a few inches (I’m not that tall), and so popped the short rows in when I needed them, and quickly joined for the body. To make up the extra stitches that I wanted for the bust, I cheated and cast on more stitches on the underarms to make up the difference. This was resolved through decreasing the sleeves every 9 rows.
The short rows - You are creating them by knitting from the front of the sweater, all the way around the first shoulder, the back, and the second shoulder and into the front again. They give you a nice shape that mimics a bust dart on the finished sweater, and it also means that it falls on your shoulders nicely. After I spent too long trying to decipher the written instructions and annoying my Knit Group, it turned out that all I needed was this YouTube….
The Split Hem is so darn cute! I did this for my Rust Pullover in the autumn and love the detail. The front is knit first, and I chose to do a twisted rib with a simple 1x1 rib bind off. I then went to the back of the sweater and knit a row, picking up ten stitches on the front main body before turning my work and starting the twisted rib (effectively on the back of the work), and then picking up 10 on the other side of the sweater. I like the way the back overlays the front, especially when I sit down, and it also allows me to knit an extra inch at the back, which works well for a cropped sweater on my body.
The sleeves are bracelet length. This was for two reasons; a spring sweater doesn’t need a heavy cuff, and I often wear a chunky brass bracelet that my mum brought me from her favourite place in Spain. Now that I am wearing it, I would have probably done another five rows, but I am really not bothered by it!
Sleeve Decreasing notes:
I honestly think that there may have been a mistake on the final edit; the sleeve decreases are written as K1, SSK, knit to 3 st before M, K2tog, K1. This makes the final look of the shaping a little odd as the stitches lean outward from the beginning of round, so my hack was to make sure that the stitches were leaning into the centre with:
K1, K2tog, K to 3 st before M, SSK, K1.
My Thoughts
I really like the finished sweater; I love the yarn weight and colours especially, and I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that the project was knit up over Easter, so that I could wear it for the rest of the season. It went with me to the beach, on road trips, a few pub visits, as well as the cinema when I went to watch Pride and Prejudice with other wonderful crafty friends; it was the perfect travel companion. It ticks all the boxes that needed to be ticked to help fill the gaps in my wardrobe, which is fantastic, and I have already been wearing it this week as I run errands in town. It also fits beautifully under a spring jacket, which means that the yoke depth and sleeve sizes are perfect.
It was also finished and blocked a couple of days before I said goodbye to Finchley, and I am so pleased that he got to see it as he loved the wool. A project is in the wings for him, which I will tell you all about later, but for now, I just want to thank you all for all your messages of love and appreciation for the most gentle of souls and the proudest of panthers. No words can be summoned to tell you how much I love him and miss him; he was the bestest of buddies.
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