What you need
| Sizes | S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL · To fit bust 32, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52 inches · Finished chest 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64 inches — 12 inches of ease in every size. Total length 25 to 34 ¼ inches, upper arm 20 to 31 ¼ inches, neck opening 12 ¾ to 16 ¼ inches. |
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| Yarn | A brushed mohair or alpaca blend at a chunky weight, about 120 yd / 110 m per 50 g ball, in one colour: 1015 to 1888 yards (9 to 16 balls, about 425 to 775 g). The sample is a pale winter blue. Two strands of worsted wool held with one of lace-weight kid mohair gives the same fabric. |
| Needles & notions | US 15 / 10 mm — a 32 in circular for the body and a 16 in circular or DPNs for the sleeves. Four stitch markers, and a smooth contrast thread for lifelines (brushed mohair does not rip back cleanly). |
| Gauge (tension) | 12 sts and 17 rows = 4 in / 10 cm in stockinette, blocked; 14.4 sts and 20 rows = 4 in / 10 cm in 1x1 rib, relaxed. Swatch, wash it — then leave it a day or two: mohair blooms and grows as it dries, and the difference is most of a size. |
Skills you’ll use
- Knit
- Purl
- K2tog
- Ssk
- Binding off mid-round
- Picking up stitches
- Three-needle bind-off
- Beginner upwards — no charts, no lace, no colourwork, no neck shaping and no sleeve cap. The hardest thing in it is the yarn, and the pattern has a page on that.
What’s in the PDF
- 20-page PDF, fully written out for six sizes — no charts to decode
- Both the front and the back of the sample photographed, plus close-ups of the armhole grain, the neck edge, the hem and a folded cuff
- A diagram of the one-round balloon-sleeve gather, drawn stitch by stitch
- A diagram of the boat neck against a real shoulder, with the margin in every size
- A diagram of the rolled hem and the rows it costs
- A full schematic, and the same sweater again as a table of counts
- A page showing how all the numbers close, and a twelve-point troubleshooting page — including what to do about mohair that will not rip back
Questions about this pattern
Will the boat neck stay on my shoulders?
Yes — that is the one number this pattern is built around. The neck is set from the wearer’s shoulder-to-shoulder measurement so it sits 1 ½ to 2 ¼ inches inside the shoulder points in every size: wide enough to be a true boat neck, narrow enough to stay put.
Is the balloon-sleeve gather hard to work?
No. Every size arrives at the cuff on an even stitch count, so the whole gather is one round of [k2tog] to end — nothing to space out by eye and nothing to get wrong. The cuff still opens to 11 inches or more over a hand.
Is brushed mohair suitable for a beginner?
The knitting itself is beginner level — the yarn is the only challenge, because mohair does not rip back cleanly. The pattern includes a lifeline habit that makes mistakes cheap, and a troubleshooting page on working with mohair.
