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[music]
in this tutorial, we're going to learn to make this easy toddler pullover.
this is a top down raglan style knit in all one piece.
it's sized from 6 months to 5T.
and as part of this tutorial, i'm going to show you three different ways to make this
sweater unique.
those three different ways are stripes, fair isle, and fabric applique.
and here is a bit of the fair isle sweater, the bottom of this green sweater.
and here is an example of felt applique.
now in this part of the video we're going to cover all of the knitting.
and that would be getting the sweater knit, as well as stripes and fair isle.
and then in a separate video, i'm going to show you how to do the felt applique.
and i've separated it out because the felt applique is something you can really do with
any of your hand knits.
if you want to add a felt design to it.
so i'll give you a link here to jump straight to the felt applicque if that's what you're
interested in.
and in this video we're going to cover all of the knitting part of it, in different parts.
now this video started out, or the idea for this sweater actually started out as a collaboration
with the youtube channel Pancake Manor.
and i've got my pancake manor tshirt on today.
and they are a kid's channel, and their tagline is "for kids and awesome parents".
and it's a, they have two puppets in the show.
Zach and Reggie, and this is actually the zach sweater.
and this is the Reggie sweater.
and we were working, we were trying to thing of an idea for collaborating, because Reb
and Billy, the folks behind pancake manor are actually friends of mine.
we were trying to think of ways to collaborate together, with a couple of videos.
and someone said, well, how about sweaters for the puppets?
[laughs]
and it didn't really, it didn't sound like that great of an idea to start with, but then
i thought, of course!
i can make sweaters for the puppets, and then i can actually make a tutorial on making the
sweater for the kids who watch the puppet show.
um, and we should actually have a video to link to with the puppets wearing their sweaters.
so, yeah. i'll give you a link to that as well.
so, if you would like to get your copy of this pattern to follow along, I'll give you
a link on screen right here, as well as in the video description below.
and this is sized from 6 months to 5T, a wide range of sizes.
and i'm using a superwash yarn here.
it's a superwash wool yarn.
which is, which has all of the great properties of wool, but it also is machine washable and
dryable.
and i give you all the details to the yarn i used on my website as well.
so the first thing we're going to do is get started with the cast on.
and then we're going to cover the raglan increases and go through the rest of the sweater.
get your copy of the pattern, and in the next video, we will start the cast on.
in the materials for this pattern, i list out, ideally, 16" circulars, maybe 24" circulars,
and double pointed needles.
and that's because in this style of sweater, we're starting at the neck, and increasing
out, and then separating the sleeves, knitting the body, and then knitting the sleeves.
so you start with a very small circumference that grows and grows.
and then you end up with a body portion that's appropriate for the 24 inch circular needles,
where the neck was appropriate for 16.
and then you'll need double pointed needles to knit the sleeves.
well, that's an ideal world. i don't expect you to have all of the circular needle lengths.
so i'm going to show you how to cast on and join in the round to start the collar with
both 16 inch circulars and longer circulars.
and eventually your work will fill up the whole long circular needle.
we're going to use the magic loop method.
we're also going to use the German Twisted cast-on.
it's a little bit different than a normal long tail cast on in that it's stretchier.
because we're talking about the neckline on a kids sweater, we want it to be quite stretchy.
let's go ahead and take a look at the sweater.
this is where the knitting starts.
right here, with the cast on.
which is very stretchy.
we're going to work in some 2x2 rib, and then we start the increases, like this.
we increase down to, well the different sizes have different increase numbers.
then we ignore the sleeves for a while by putting them on scrap yarn.
and then just knit the body, and then finish off the body with another bit of 2x2 rib.
so, let's get started with the german cast on first.
german twisted cast on.
also sometimes called old norwegian cast on.
i'm going to show you how to do this here, but if you need more of a review or a slower
review, i'm going to give you a link right here to my video that is dedicated to the
german twisted cast-on.
i always start with a slip knot.
you don't have to start with a slip knot, if you are familiar with the long tail slingshot
method, you might just start with wrapping the yarn over the needle like this.
i like the security of a slip knot.
then you're going to get yourself in position like you would for a slingshot cast on.
which is, you have a long tail.
you've left yourself quite a long tail to cast on.
just like with any long tail cast on.
and you've got the two strands hanging like this.
you're going to put your left hand pincher fingers through those two strands.
grab the yarn with your, with your [laughs] two fingers down here.
your ring and pinky, and then *** your hand back so you have the slingshot.
this is the same way you start a long tail slingshot cast on, but we're going to do the
german twisted.
to do this, the first thing you want to do is go under both strands on my thumb.
and then back over the top strand, or the, let me start that over again.
i want to make sure i get the words consistent here!
go under both strands on the thumb, and back over the top of the back one.
come up, grab the yarn from your index finger.
and then the yarn that's between your thumb and the needle is actually twisted.
we want to go back up under the front strand and over the back strand, and you can let
go and tighten it up.
that's the most confusing part is the very last part.
so we'll cover this a couple more times.
under both, over the back one.
grab the one from your index finger.
and then we have this twist.
we're going to go under the front strand, over the back strand.
and tighten it up.
under both, over the back.
grab the one on your index finger.
under the front, over the back.
and in my video, my dedicated video for this, i actually explain to straighten out your
thumb and go straight through.
it's the exact same thing.
but i find it actually goes faster to go under and over.
i've been doing this cast on so many times - you can see all the little sweaters i've
knit.
and i use this cast on a lot.
i actually struggle with remembering how to do just a regular slingshot cast on anymore!
[laughs]
because i use this one so much more often!
i am first going to show you how to get started on 16 inch circulars.
what i have here.
very short circulars.
and the cast on number will fit around these, a little tight at first, but it will fit around
these without any trouble.
so i have my number already cast on here.
and i'm going to make sure that all of my knots from the cast on are on the inside of
the cord.
the point here is i don't want to get anything twisted.
i have a stitch marker that i'm going to put on the right needle.
my right needle is where the working yarn is coming from.
and check again that nothing's twisted.
very good.
and then i'm just going to start knitting.
and since i'm working in knit 2, purl 2 rib, i'm going to knit two, yarn forward, to purl
two.
yarn back to knit two.
yarn forward to purl two.
and that's it! 16 inch circulars are nice for this.
and this is actually part of an interchangeable set.
and the needle tips are quite short, to make up for the short circular cord.
okay.
now i'm going to show you how to do the cast on, or getting started with the knitting,
if all you have to work with is a long circular needle.
and the number of stitches we have cast on here would never fit around this needle, as
you can see.
so we're going to magic loop it.
and the way to do that - it's going to be a little floppy here and noisy for a second.
i have all my stitches here.
somewhere close to the middle, i'm going to make a gap, and pull the cord long between
those two stitches.
so now i have half the stitches on one side of the cord and half the stitches on the other.
and all of this extra cord here.
i'm going to straighten things out, make sure they're not twisted.
okay, they're not twisted.
i'm going to scoot everything close to the tip of the needles.
and then, with my working yarn coming from the back needle, you see here.
i'm going to pull the back needle long.
and that actually puts me in a position to work this first stitch on the front needle.
i'm going to take this stitch marker and put it on the right needle to mark the beginning
of my round.
put my needle in.
whoops, i want my working yarn on the outside.
there we go.
put my needle in, and i'm going to do just like i did before.
i'm going to start with knit 2, watching the tension on that first stitch to eliminate
a gap, or at least reduce the gap.
purl two.
and i'm going to finish up this side of the row really quickly, to show you what to do
when you finish one side of magic loop.
okay, i've just finished that side of the magic loop, and there are no more stitches
for me to work.
so i'm going to turn the work.
get all the stitches close to the tips of the needles here.
this is actually the magic loop starting position.
your working yarn is coming from the back.
all of the stitches are close to the tips of the needles.
you're ready to go.
you pull the back needle long again.
and do just like you did before, only this time you're not joining in the round.
it's actually easier, now that we're joined.
okay.
so that's how you're going to get started.
whether you're using 16 inch circulars or longer circulars.
and next up, we're going to go over how to work the raglan increases.
once you finish the collar, you're going to follow the pattern to work as many rows of
the ribbing that you need to.
the next row is a setup round, that tells you exactly where to place stitch markers
for the raglan increases.
and, so the next part, really the bulk of the sweater is working these raglan increases.
and that's what i'm going to show you how to do right now.
let's take a look.
i am here at the beginning of the round.
well, almost the beginning of the round.
because we have four stitch markers going, you might want to put a little clip, or use
a unique stitch marker or something, so that you're sure to notice when you're at the beginning
of the round.
because they start to kind of look the same.
i always just watch out for this tail end.
that's how i know i'm at the beginning of my round.
okay.
i'm at the beginning of the round.
and on an increase row, and your pattern will tell you how many of these to work.
this is what you're going to do every time you come to a marker.
i'm going to knit one, and then kfb.
which is knit front back.
i'll knit into the front loop of the stitch, swing the tip of my needle around to the back
loop of the stitch, and knit it.
and i realize i'm working in kind of a fine gauge here.
if you need a really detailed closeup video of the kfb stitch, i'll give you a link right
here.
i'm going to knit up to the next marker.
or two stitches from the next marker.
two stitches before the marker.
i'm going to kfb, knit into the front loop of the stitch, and the back.
knit one.
slip the marker.
knit one.
kfb.
so, with four markers here, we're increasing on each side of each marker, that's 8 increases
for the increase round.
and it's always knitting up to two stitches before the marker, kfb, knit one, and then
slipping the marker, knit one, kfb.
so we have a knit stitch on either side of the marker, and then a kfb flanking those
knit stitches.
this is great netflix knitting, when you're doing these increase rows like this.
i'm going to get up here to show you one more time.
okay, two stitches before the marker.
kfb, knit one.
slip marker.
knit one, kfb.
i told you this was an easy sweater.
this is the bulk of what you're going to do in this sweater.
this is what most of the knitting is, is the raglan increases.
so you'll follow your pattern for the size that you're knitting.
because you're going to work more increases for the larger sizes and fewer for the smaller
sizes.
and then you're going to get to a point where the sweater is the right size around the chest,
and then the arms will be, too.
you can actually try it on the kid if you want, or just go with standard sizing, either
is fine.
and then we're going to separate the sleeves.
which is what we're going to cover in the next video.
okay, we're at a point in the sweater where we're going to separate the sleeves, and the
knitting is going to go a lot faster from here on out.
you have followed the pattern for the size that you're knitting.
and while you were knitting the raglan increases you were knitting the front and the back,
and the sleeves, all at once.
now we're going to separate the sleeves and just finish knitting the body.
um, let's dive right in, let's take a look.
here is my knitting.
we have a sleeve here, the front or back here, sleeve here, front or back here.
and my first marker, which is at the beginning of my round.
i can tell because here is my tail end from my cast on.
i am just about there.
so i'm going to knit right up to this marker.
okay, i'm going to take that marker out for just a minute.
it's going to fall off if i don't.
you need some smooth scrap yarn.
i like to use leftover sock yarn.
and a tapestry needle for this part.
because we're going to slide all of these sleeve stitches on to scrap yarn.
take my tapestry needle, and just slip those stitches from the first marker to the second
marker on to the needle and the scrap yarn.
whoops.
and this part isn't scary, you're sliding everything right on to there, but i'll tell
you - just about every time i do this on a sweater, a dog bumps me.
and [laughs] i end up dropping at least a stitch or two and have to put them back up.
the dogs want to sit next to me on the sofa, which is sweet!
i always cut this yarn far longer than i need it, so that i can tie a knot.
i just don't want to worry about those stitches coming off.
okay, so now the sleeve stitches are on the scrap yarn, and our two working stitches are
pretty far from each other.
we're going to do the backwards loop cast on to cast on two stitches.
and this is going to be the underarm, and that's what we're going to do here.
i'm going to put my stitch marker back on.
i want the beginning of my round still marked.
and to do a backwards loop cast on, it's a way of casting on stitches, kind of a cheater
cast on, but it's what you do when you only have one strand of yarn to work with.
so i'm going to put my left thumb on the yarn like this, flip it around so there is a loop
on my thumb.
slide the needle up into the loop on my thumb.
and let go.
left thumb on the yarn, flip, slide the needle into that loop, and let go.
and if you need a slower review of the backwards loop cast on, i'll give you a link right here.
it is a pretty easy cast on.
i think it's the cast on that sometimes people do when they are beginning knitters, and they
forget how to do any other kind of cast on.
because it definitely puts loops on the needle!
now i've got my marker back in place and those two stitches there, and i'm just going to
keep knitting up to the next marker.
okay.
so you see here.
we've got our little sleeve, with the stitches held.
i'm going to knit up to this next marker.
i'll remove this marker, slip all of these stitches on to scrap yarn just like i did
before.
remove this marker as well.
and do the backwards loop cast on to cast on two stitches under this arm.
once you finish that, you're going to follow the pattern to knit the body alone.
and then finish off with 2x2 rib border at the bottom of the sweater.
and now, we're ready to go -well, once you finish that!
we'll be ready to knit the sleeves, which is what we're going to cover next.
once you finish the entire body of the sweater, it's time to go back and knit the sleeves.
and for the sleeves, i'm going to demonstrate using double pointed needles.
but if you want to stay with knitting with the circular needle using the magic loop method,
that's fine, too.
let's go ahead and take a look.
we've got our stitches reserved on this scrap yarn here.
and i've already put in two needles.
what i did was i started at the underarm, and i just slid - well, i'm going to show
you here.
i'm just going to slide the needle in, just running along with the scrap yarn there.
through each stitch.
and i leave - one of the reasons i use smooth sock yarn is because it's fine enough that
i can slide the needle in with the yarn still there.
i know some people actually use dental floss.
i find dental floss to be a little bit too fine, and scrap yarn to be perfect. sock yarn.
okay, so i've got needles in, three needles in, with all of the stitches on the needles.
i'm going to cut this yarn, and i can just slide the scrap yarn out.
and i'm done with that.
now, starting at the underarm here.
okay, you guys are going to laugh.
i have to knit the sleeve with orange yarn.
because with all of the stuff that i brought to the studio today, i didn't bring any green
yarn!
but maybe it will make it even easier to see what i'm doing.
[laughs]
i wouldn't normally do this.
might start a new trend.
okay, here i am at the underarm.
and we cast on two stitches here when we were knitting the body.
we're going to pick up two stitches here.
and so, i'm going to find the center-ish of the underarm, and then just to the left of
the center, i'm going to put my needle in under two strands.
and then grab the yarn, folding it over, leaving about a six inch tail.
wrap the needle, and pull that through.
now i've just picked up one stitch from under the arm.
which is what i wanted to do.
and then i'm just going to knit across all of the stitches on the first double pointed
needle.
and if you've never used double pointed needles, this is a really good project to get started
with them.
using double pointed needles on a project where you're actually doing the cast on to
the double pointed needles is a tricky way to learn how to use them
but we already have a lot of fabric going here, and we're just using the double pointed
needles kind of in the middle of the project.
okay, and you see when i get to the end of a double pointed needle, i put the empty needle
in my right hand, and go to the next needle.
and i want to get to the end, so i can show you how i'm going to finish up this first
round.
okay.
now remember, we cast on two stitches at the underarm, but i've only picked up one.
so i want to pick up the second one now.
so just to the right of the center.
i'm going to put my needle, the one i just knit on to, under two strands, wrap it, and
pull it through.
and i've picked up my second stitch.
then what i like to do is to take my short end and my working yarn, and tie it, [laughs]
tie it successfully into a knot.
to help keep this all together.
when you finish with the sleeve, you might notice that there is a gap or a hole under
the arm here.
this tail end can be used - you have to weave in the end, anyway.
and when you're weaving in the end, you can use it to close up any gaps you might have
under the arm.
a little bit of a gap under the arm is really normal with a top down raglan.
and that's why it's good that we have an end there!
once you finish up the sleeves, the only other thing - well, you'll be finished with the
sweater, but i'm going to show you a couple of ways of different and special.
we're going to cover working stripes and fair isle in the next video.
if you've decided to dress your sweater up, make it unique with either stripes or fair
isle, that's what we're going to cover now.
there is a little planning ahead involved, of course.
i have this tutorial in order of how to do things, but you might want to skip ahead to
this part, because you don't want to finish the sweater before you get to doing this part!
for stripes, you can really add stripes anywhere, to any part of the sweater, you can even add
them to the raglan increase part of the sweater.
because there is no stitch count necessary when you're working stripes, right?
but with the fair isle pattern you actually want to have a multiple of six stitches.
so if you do choose this fair isle pattern that i show that i have mapped out in the
pattern and what i show here in the demonstration.
you will need a multiple of six stitches.
if you use another fair isle design, you'll want to figure out what the multiple is, and
then adjust your stitch number when you start doing that part.
usually you just need to do a make 1 stitch or a knit two together, something like that,
a couple of times, to get the stitch count correct.
let's go ahead and dive right in to stripes first.
i have a three row stripe pattern going here.
actually, the technique is the same, even though i have this about a hat size here.
what i want to show you are two things.
because you can do the whole sweater in stripes if you want.
and you don't have to break the yarn each time.
you see this here?
i've left both balls of yarn attached the whole time i've been knitting these.
and just switching back and forth between the two colors, as necessary.
that's one easy thing.
and the next thing i want to show you is when you're working in the round, it is normal
to get a really distinctive "jog" at the beginning of the round when you change colors.
and i've corrected that here.
you can see that there is still a bit of a jog, but after i block this and straighten
it out, this actually looks really good right now.
the jog is normally stronger than that.
i want to show you how to work this jog fix.
to do this, i have, i started, the last round i did was in purple.
or in tan.
the round that i'm doing right now is in this purple color.
i went all the way around, i'm almost at the beginning of the round again.
so i'm going to finish this round.
and this correction is done on the first stitch, of the second round, of the new color.
first stitch, second round, of the new color.
here's my first stitch.
what i want to do is look at the stitch below, which happens to be in tan.
and it looks like a V, right?
i'm going to take my right needle, and pick up the right leg of that V.
from back to front.
and just set that up on the needle with the purple stitch.
and then knit those two together.
that is the correction.
and it's hard to see the correction until i knit at least one more round.
i will show you that one more quick time.
look at the row below, i see the tan V, which is the stitch below.
from back to front, grab that stitch.
put it up on the needle with the purple stitch.
and knit those two together.
that's what you'll do, the first stitch of the second round, every time you change color.
okay, let's look at fair isle.
here it is in the sweater.
and i've chosen to put this at the bottom of the sweater, because the stitch count was
stable.
back here, if i wanted to do it on the yoke or something, the stitch count would have
changed with the raglan increases, and i wouldn't have been able to keep the pattern looking
this good.
it's easier to do stripes on the yoke, if that's what you want to do.
here is the color chart, and this is included in the pattern.
each box is a stitch, and just follow the colors for the stitches that you're doing.
i happen to really like these colors, but i'm going to demonstrate in these colors.
i have a flat piece here, but it's going to be just like working in the round.
because i'm not going to do a wrong side row.
and what row am i on?
i am on...let me mark it.
i am on this row here.
the most important thing when you're working fair isle is to keep your tension really loose
on the back.
you see my floats here, and how nothing is bunched or tight?
that's what we want.
if your floats are tight, your work will end up all scrunchy.
so starting out with this pattern, i'm actually...i started out a little bit differently.
let me start this, and then i'll show you where i am.
i am ready for my pink stitch here, i'm actually right here on my row.
this is a bit different than you'll have in the pattern, sorry about that.
i'm going to knit my first pink stitch, i have both these colors hanging off the back.
and i'm going to go back to purple.
and i only skipped one pink stitch there, so this is where the fair isle trick comes
in.
i need to knit another pink stitch here.
i put my needle in ready to knit.
and then separate all the stitches on my right needle.
the reason for that is so this pink yarn has to travel a long way to complete that stitch.
and it left the float really loose on the back.
okay, i'm ready to work a pink stitch.
so i separate the stitches on the right needle.
to make that pink yarn really have to travel a long way to work that stitch.
and the float stays loose on the back.
and that's really the secret to working any fair isle design.
keeping loose floats.
one other secret is, if you stick with animal fiber yarns, i'm using a superwash wool here.
your fair isle will be easier to work because those yarns are more forgiving wtih tension
issues.
if it does end up being a little bit scrunched, you can apply some steam and that should help
it flatten all out.
now if you want to watch the video on fabric applique, i'll give you a link here to the
next video, which is the third way of dressing up your toddler pullover.
otherwise, we've covered stripes and fair isle, or a plain sweater, so we've got plenty
here.
but you can click here to get to the next video which is what we're going to do next.
[whooshing sounds]
[music]