Holiday Sweater Ornament

I have been on a mission to find the perfect knit ornament to make for friends and family this year.  What I had in mind was a tiny sweater with a snowflake and the year.  After several hours searching Ravelry and a few false starts I knit up the Tiny Holiday Sweater Ornament a free pattern from Knit Picks.  It is truly a lovely little sweater, but much too time consuming to make in mass quantity.

Not really finding what I wanted on Raverly,  I came up with my own 

Knit Picks Palette in Hollyberry and Cream

Holiday Sweater Ornament

What you will need:

•  About 30 yards (will more than get the job done) of fingering weight wool and about 3 yards of contrasting color to embroider the snowflake and year.
• Set of 5 Double Pointed Needles in size 1 (2.25mm)
• 2 large safety pins or waste yarn
• Tapestry Needle

Finished measurement:  2 ¾ inches long and 2 inches wide at the body of the sweater

Directions (sweater is knit top down) 

CO 20 sts on 4 DPNs  (placing the stitches as follows:  Needle 1: 6 sts Needle2: 4 sts Needle 3: 6 sts Needle 4: 4sts)

Join and knit a 1x1 rib (K1, P1) for 3 rounds.

Knit one round

Increases

Round 1:  (K1, kfb, knit to next to last stitch on Needle, kfb, k1),  repeat on each Needle.

Rounds 2 & 3: Knit

Repeat the 3 increase rounds three more times. 

Sweater Body

Knit across Needle 1 and cast on 3 stitches, place stitches on Needle 2 on to a safety pin, knit across Needle 3 and cast on 3 sts (you will need to split the stitches on to 2 Needles) , place stitches on Needle 4 on to a safety pin. 

The stitches on the safety pins will be the sleeves and the ones on the needles will make up the body of the sweater. 

Knit in the round for 10 rounds.

Knit 3 rounds of a 1x1 rib and then cast off.  I like to cast off in the stitch pattern meaning, I knit the knit stitches and purl the purl stitches when casting off.

Sleeves

Put the 12 stitches from the safety pin or waste yarn on to 2 needles.  Pick up 3 stitches in the arm pit area of the sweater and then knit the 12 on the needles.  (15 sts total)

Knit in the round for 5 rounds.

Round 6: K2tog, knit around (14 sts)

Knit 4 more rounds  

For the cuff: Knit 3 rounds of a 1x1 rib and then cast off.  I like to cast off in the stitch pattern meaning, I knit the knit stitches and purl the purl stitches when casting off.

Use tapestry needle to sew in ends and embroidery the snowflake and year. 

I don’t really weave in the ends,  I just tidy up the exterior of the sweater, then stuff the ends to the inside of the sweater. 

Embroidery

You can make up your own snowflake motif, but here is how I did mine. 

Find what looks like a stitch in the center of the sweater, and toward the top.  The center of my snowflake is 1 inch from the top of the sweater and I stitch the snowflake in the following steps. 

1.  Stitch 4 dashes 
2.  Add the point to each dash, bring yarn up on one point,  loop it though the dash and then down at the other point.
3. Stich an X over the center.
4. Add small dashes to look like dots.

 

For the numbers, I simplified each number to just straight lines and just went for it,  took me a few tries to get it somewhat even. 

Now to see how many of these babies I can crank out by the holidays!

Happy Knitting.