Monday Sweater by Petite Knit

I obviously have a thing for Petite Knit patterns. I just love the simplicity and look of all her sweaters, and the patterns are written in a style I find easy to understand. I recently found an article about her and wasn’t surprised to find out she’s a doctor and writes knitting patterns like she approaches research manuscripts. No wonder her patterns make so much sense!

I love the look of a double neckband that sits close to the neck. I also was excited that the pattern included German short rows. You will recall from my Caramel Sweater that I like having the back of the neckband higher than the front so that the sweater is balanced from the front to the back. The final sweater fits perfectly, and I can’t wait for cooler weather so I can wear it all the time.

Project Information

Size

The Monday Sweater is designed to have 6-8 inches of positive ease and fits a bust circumference of 30.5 – 59 inches. I knitted a size L, intended for a bust measurement between 37.5 – 39.5 inches. The final measurement of 46.75 inches gives me roughly 7 inches of ease.

Yarn

The pattern recommends 300 g of Sunday by Sandnes Garn (50 g per skein) held together with 150 g of Silk Mohair by Sandnes Garn (25 g per skein). That would mean 6 skeins of both yarns; however, I’ve learned from past patterns that I need to adjust my yarn amount. The first thing to pay attention to is the yardage of a skein. Sunday is 257 yds per skein and Silk Mohair is 232 yds per skein. There’s a 25 yd difference between the two yarns, so when held together, the mohair runs out before the merino. At six skeins of Silk Mohair, that comes to a total of 1,392 yards. If we divide the total Silk Mohair yardage by 257 to get the number of Sunday skeins needed, the total is actually 5.4 skeins and not 6. I realize the pattern is including a buffer amount of yardage to complete the sweater, but I keep on ending up with a whole extra skein of yarn at the end. I find this waste annoying. The last few Petite Knit patterns this has been the case, and I’m learning to buy less now. I know also that I don’t need that much yarn because I have a very short torso length. I don’t need to knit my sweaters as long as recommended.

I used 5 skeins (250 g) of Sunday by Sandnes Garn, because I assumed the extra 0.4 of the skein wouldn’t be needed. I did play a bit of yarn chicken near the end but thankfully used the whole 5 skeins with no extra left over. That means 5 skeins of Sunday at 257 comes to 1,285 yards. Divided by 232, I needed 5.538 skeins of Silk Mohair.

I went with a lovely light lime green color for both Sunday and Silk Mohair, Sunny Lime 9825.

Gauge and Needles

The other reason I love Petite Knit patterns is that I can knit the correct gauge often with the same needle size. The gauge for this sweater is 21 sts x 28 rows in stockinette stitch on 4 mm needles. The same knitting gauge as the Caramel Sweater. I love consistency.

FYI my favorite needle is ChiaoGoo Knit RED circular needle. I love the stainless steel construction and the slight bend at the end of the needle to remove the pressure by your pinky finger when holding the needles. As someone who struggles with hot sticky hands, these needles (along with many fans), make it possible for me to knit when the weather is warmer. Aluminum and wooden needles heat up in my hand and pick up oils and sweat, making knitting hard to impossible.

Techniques

Don’t forget to grab yourself some Pyrm Knitting-in Elastic thread so you can keep your neckbands from stretching out. I use this on all of my sweaters!

I’d also like to gush over Suzanne Bryan’s knitting videos on YouTube. There are some techniques in the sweater pattern that you might not be familiar with and I find Suzanne’s videos immensely helpful. It doesn’t hurt that we have the same knitting style.

Alterations

The pattern includes 14 German short rows. Given the knitting gauge (28 rows = 4 inches), the extra 14 rows will make the height difference between the front and back neckline 2 inches. I needed to add an additional 0.5 inches, equal to 3.5 rows. I rounded up to make things easier. I will include the original instructions in blue for my size (L) followed by the updated version in red that I knitted:

Original text from the Yoke section: “Work Rows 1-8 once, then work Row 7 and 8 another 3 times. There are now a total of 158 sts on the needle. Knit to beginning of round. The shaping of the neckline has been completed.”

Updated text: “Work Rows 1-8 once, then work Row 7 and 8 another 5 times. There are now a total of 174 sts on the needle. Knit to the beginning of round. The shaping of the neckline has been completed.”

Adding the 4 extra German short rows added 16 stitches and altered the distribution of stitches as well:

Original text: “Distribution of sts: 23 sts (right back), 3 raglan sts, 26 sts (right sleeve), 3 raglan sts, 47 sts (front), 3 raglan sts, 26 sts (left sleeve), 3 raglan sts, 24 sts (left back).”

Updated text: “Distribution of sts: 25 sts (right back), 3 raglan sts, 30 sts (right sleeve), 3 raglan sts, 51 sts (front), 3 raglan sts, 30 sts (left sleeve), 3 raglan sts, 26 sts (left back).”

I also adjusted the number of rounds for the rest of the raglan, so that when I got to the part where the yoke was completed I had the correct number of stitches. “Now continue in the round on circular needle from the RS, while working raglan increases on every other round as follows […]”

Original: “Work Rounds 1 and 2 a total of 27 times. There are now a total of 374 sts on the needle.”

Updated: “Work Rounds 1 and 2 a total of 25 times. There are now a total of 374 sts on the needle.”

It was straightforward math since my original alteration added 16 extra stitches, and raglan increases added 8 stitches. I just had to do 2 fewer raglan increase rounds.

I followed the rest of the pattern as written.

PRO TIP: Wash and block your sweater 4-6 inches from where you think you’ll want the sleeves and hem to end. This helps the yarn bloom and relax. This will significantly impact the fit and will make determining the length easier.

Conclusion

I love this sweater. What more can I say? I see some highs in the 50s next week, and I can’t WAIT!