I have the cutest little jumper pattern for you guys today, called Cherry Ripe from the 1942 Edition of Stitchcraft.
To download the free pattern as a pdf click on the following link: Cherry Ripe Jumper
Click here to add this pattern to your Ravelry Queue or Favorites.
Addendum: A portion of the top corner was cut off in the original pdf. Please download this additional page to get the missing bit of information to knit this jumper: Cherry Ripe Jumper Pattern_Update.
The cherry pattern is knitted in intarsia, not with a stranding method. With Intarsia knitting you only use one strand of yarn for each separate colored-motif. Let’s dissect this a bit, shall we? The yoke of the jumper is covered in cute little cherries with stems and leaves. Each individual spray has 3 colors: red, green, and brown/black. That means that for each of these sprays you’ll have 3 separate mini-balls of color that you’ll use to knit the motif. Looking at the sleeve, I’ve roughly spotted 18-ish cherry sprays. That means you’ll need 18 mini-balls of red, 18 mini-balls of green and 18 mini balls of brown/black to work the one sleeve.
At the end of knitting you’ll have a lot more ends to weave in, but I think intarsia is somewhat easier than stranded knitting (which is used for fair isle knitting) where you have all of the floats in the back of the work. The floats have to be just the right tension for the piece to look nice, and I think that is one of the challenges with stranded knitting or with fair isle.
In general, Intarsia knitting is generally employed when there are large blocks of color in knitting, such as one large motif. But I suspect they did this on this jumper is due to the fact that the background is such a light color. If you used a stranded-knitting method you would end up seeing the floats on the front of your piece, which is unslightly.
This pattern from knitty has a great explanation of intarsia along with some how-to’s, if you want to read how it’s done.
Back to the pattern:
The jumper pattern is written for a 34-36″ bust size, using a fingering weight yarn. The tension of 9 stitches to an inch, measured over unpressed rib on number 9 needles. For today, the needle size would equate to a US size 5 or 3.75mm. I personally think this needles size is too large for this project.
The type of yarn in the pattern is Patons Beehive fingering, 3-ply. Based on this chart, the standard gauge for this brand of yarn using a size 3 knitting needle (3.25mm) would be 8 stitches/10 rows is an inch. My personal gauge using a fingering weight yarn is 8 stitches and 10 rows using a US size 2 knitting needle. While I know this gauge is measured with the k3, p1 rib pattern, I would have a difficult time using such a large needle for this jumper since the ribbing would be holey and a bit transparent.
If I were going to knit this up, I would knit my swatch using a fingering weight yarn but starting with a US size 3 needle, instead of the 5. I’d measure my swatch and then see where I was at.
I hope I haven’t turned you all off from knitting up this cute little jumper with giving you too much information. Rather, my intention is just to give you enough detail for your first steps.
As always, do let me know if you’d like to see any particular patterns up here… Perhaps some good patterns for holiday gifts? Or something for the ‘gents?
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