Free Sweater Pattern: No Sew Striped Breathless Sweater

this is my free knit sweater pattern "Striped Breathless Sweater" which is an oversized, slouchy knit sweater, knit in the round from the bottom up, then worked flat across the shoulders. the best part...no seaming and no sewing at all! super quick to knit and the finished product is so adorable! i can see myself wearing this all summer long, and in the fall. sleeveless and made of cotton, it's made for warmer weather. also, see my other free knitting patterns and tutorials

Striped Sweater Pattern

Size

• 18.5" measured flat across the widest part of the shoulders
• 17.75" measured flat across the hips 

Materials

• Size 9 needles - 32” circular
• Knit Picks Simply Cotton Worsted yarn in Camel Heather - 2.5 skeins (color A)
• Knit Picks Simply Cotton Worsted yarn in Prussian Heather - 1 skein (color B)
• 2 stitch markers
• scrap yarn or stitch holder

Gauge

• Blocked Gauge: 4” = 13.67 sts, 22.5 rows
• Unblocked Gauge: 4” = 15.67 sts, 20.83 rows

Stockinette Stitch

• In the round:

               Knit all stitches

• Flat:

               RS - knit row
               WS - purl row

Notes

The sweater is knit from the bottom up in the round, until the bottom of the arm opening. Then the front and back are split, with the back stitches put on a stitch holder (or scrap yarn) while the front is worked flat. Then the back is worked flat. Then the shoulder seams are bound off together with a 3 needle bind off, leaving the center stitches bound off separately. No seaming necessary!

Stripes In general there are 12 rows of color A (tan) and 3 rows of color B (blue). However, at the top and bottom of the sweater, a set of blue stripes are skipped to give a wider chunk of color A (tan). So, when you cast on, you’ll actually knit 24 rows of color A before switching to color B. Then, continue in 12 color A to 3 color B pattern until you start nearing the top of the shoulder, where you’ll skip the last color B stripe.

Modifications This sweater can easily be modified to make it larger or smaller. All you need to do is change the number of stitches you cast on in the beginning, then follow the rest of the pattern as is. To determine how many stitches to cast on, you'll need to know how many total inches all the way around you want your sweater to be (i.e. 40 inches) and your gauge (i.e. 4" = 16sts). (Note: Your gauge can differ from mine if you're determining your own number of cast on stitches).

First, calculate your gauge per 1", by dividing your Number of Sts by Number of Inches. (i.e. 16/4 = 4 sts per 1")
Next, multiply your gauge per 1" (the number you just calculated) x your target sweater size (i.e. 4 x 40 = 160sts).
Last, If your number is an odd number, round to the nearest even number. (You want an even number of stitches so your back and front of the sweater are identical). That's it!

Techniques Used

• increases - make 1 (left and right slanting). see knittinghelp.com for great instruction on increases
• 3 needle bind off. see knitty for instructions
• jogless stripes - stationary method of joining colors for jogless stripes. a great overview is at techknitting

Pattern

BOTTOM
CO 138 sts in color A, join to knit in the round, being careful not to twist stitches.
Place marker between first/last st (PM1) and between sts 69/70 (PM2)
Round 1-4 - *K1, P1, repeat from * across row
Round 5-76 - knit in stockinette st (add or decrease # of rounds here if you want to make it longer or shorter)
At the same time, switch colors for the stripes. The first 24 rows are worked in color A, then 3 rows of color B. Afterwards, work 12 rows in color A then 3 of color B.

Round 77 (round 5 of color A) - increase row: slip M, k1, m1R, knit to 1 st before next marker, m1L, k1, SM, k1, m1R, knit to 1 st before M, m1L, k1 (142 sts)
round 78 (round 6 of color A) - knit

Split front and back
Next row - (row 7 of color A) - knit from first to 2nd marker (this will be your front - 71 sts); place all sts from 2nd M to end of round on a stitch holder (this will be your sweater back - 71 sts).

FRONT
row 2 - purl row (keeping in stockinette st worked flat)
row 3 (row 9 of color A) - increase row - k1, m1R, knit to 1 st before last st, m1L, k1 (73 sts)
row 4 - purl
row 5 - knit
row 6 - purl
row 7 - (row 1 of color B) - increase row - k1, m1R, knit to 1 st before last st, m1L, k1 (75 sts)
row 8-46 - work in stockinette stitch flat
(This will be about 9 inches from the split in the underarm seam.)
This covers 2 more blue stripes, but skip the last set of blue stripes.
Put sts on holder
(Note - after the split, when switching colors, when switching back to color A, if you’re on a circular needle, slide your sts over to the other side of the needle so you don’t have to break your color A yarn…you can just carry it up…but just make sure you continue working in stockinette st). if this confuses you - just skip this trick and switch colors like normal :)

BACK
add sts of back from holder to needles, positioning needles to start with the KNIT row. setup row 1- knit this row.
follow instructions for FRONT.

SHOULDER & BIND OFF
Use 3 needle bind off for the first 19 sts to create a should seam. Bind off middle 38 sts in opposite of stockinette st. Bind off remaining 19 sts in 3 needle bind off for other shoulder seam.

Weave in loose ends and block sweater.

Abbreviations

• CO = cast on
• K = knit
• P = purl
• PM = place marker
• M = marker
• SM (or slip M) = slip marker (from your left needle to your right)
• M1L = make 1 left-slanting (a type of increase)
• M1R = make 1 right-slanting (a type of increase)

pre-soaking cotton yarn to avoid color bleed // blocking my swatch

since bobbi (expert knitter; friend; project manager of this sweater) has instilled the fear of god in me if i don't PROPERLY gauge my new sweater, i'm going the full nine in terms of prep work. in addition to blocking my swatch, i also thought that i should do something about the color-fastness of my dark navy yarn, which will be striped with my much-lighter camel colored yarn. (this sweater turning into a muddled colored blog is probably actually a bigger concern of mine than this stupid swatch.)



after some brief internet research, i amassed my materials.
* 1/4 cup of salt
* 1/2 cup of vinegar
* 4 cups of hot water
* bowl

first, you need to be working with a skein of yarn...not a ball or this won't work (a ball is too tight). luckily for me, knit picks packaged this one up already as a skein. also, don't do this with wool! only with cotton. apparently the hot water will cause the wool to felt.



then i dissolved the salt & vinegar in the hot water, put in my skein of cotton in, soaked for 20 minutes, rinsed. then because i didn't want to smell like a bag of salt & vinegar potato chips, i quickly gave it a soak in wool-lite, and a final rinse. then set it out to dry. honestly, this literally took me 5 minutes to put together...and after seeing almost no color come out of this dark blue yarn, i'm feeling pretty reassured.




while all of this was going on, i also blocked my swatch. before that, i took crazy measurements of the pre-blocked swatch and got my pre-blocked gauge. then soaked it a bit hear in some wool-lite, rinsed it out and pinned it out with some T-pins. i'm so proud of myself for being so thorough and not cheating my way through this sweater!

striped sweater: the beginnings of a new pattern

i'm starting a new pattern. even though i've had bad luck ever finishing a pullover that doesn't require stickman arms to wear, i'm going to actually create a pattern. it's easy though because 1) it doesn't have sleeves, and 2) it's boxy so it has no shaping.

i've been really wanting a striped sweater, but the one i already started is made from alpaca and is long sleeved. i need something to wear NOW. and i happened to come across this madewell sweater, and it's the perfect inspiration. and i can knit this up for $35, instead of $125.

i carefully looked everywhere for the perfect yarn. i debated cotton/silk blend for the summertime, and ended up going with 100% cotton, simply cotton worsted yarn from knitpicks, in prussian heather (which is much darker in person than on the site) and camel heather. i really want a luxurious feeling yarn with an incredible drape. i went with this one because of the amazing reviews, beautiful drape after searching for finished project photos on ravelry, and it's worsted weight. oh, and the price is pretty great.



while i was waiting on my yarn to arrive, i sketched out some diagrams, looked up comparable yardages, and researched hems and collar finishes. yesterday, the yarn finally arrived, and because i promised my co-worker/friend, bobbi (who is a much better knitter than me) that i would be VERY DILIGENT in my making my swatch, i've swatched up the yarn here in size 8 and 9 needles. leaning more towards the 9s.



i thought i was ALL set to start on this thing, but now bobbi is making me block this before starting. after reading up on the science of swatching, i'm now committed. i'm not letting this thing hang from a hanger for 2 days though. when it's dry, i'm gauging it. more to come soon!

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