Everyone needs a sweater, even your wine bottle

Testing the wine sweater out as a quick hostess gift

And I’m quickly finding out that my thoughts on knitting these are the same as my thoughts on a glass of wine – you can’t have just one.  For my first wine sweater, I tested the waters so to speak with a popular pattern from the Just Be Craftsy blog. 

This Wine sweater looked great and it seemed like the skills involved were pretty spot on for an intermediate knitter.  That and I haven’t tried someone else’s pattern in a good bit so this was perfect. 

Turns out, so was the wine sweater pattern! Just Be Craftsy kept it simple.  If you can work with DPNs (double pointed needles) and work a simple cable, you can most definitely follow this pattern. 

A few thoughts: 

• She uses cable right, when I would typically use cable back (not a big deal at all just a heads up for those who are used to my patterns).
• Once the increase rounds are complete, the pattern is a really easy repeat as the instructions for all four needles are the same.
• Stitch markers to denote the end of round are your friend in this pattern – preferably if they clip to your yarn since the rings tend to slide off of DPNs.
• Using her increase round as a base, you can easily customize this pattern for more fun knitting projects and hostess gifts – which I am totally doing!

Catch that last bullet point? 

Here’s my first wine sweater based on Just Be Crafty’s Pattern:

The Braided Cable

You can grab the Wool Ease Blue Heather Here.

Follow the directions for the start of the pattern: Grab a total of 5-6 DPNs ( or a cable needle instead of a 6th DPN – I simply use a DPN for my cable needles.)

These patterns call for worsted weight yarn, if you don’t see the wording on the skein look for an image of a skein of yarn with a “4” on the label. 

Start Increase rounds for bottom of sweater
(stretches across the wine bottle)

Cast on a total of eight stitches – there are two ways I have found of doing this.  

Option 1: Cast on two stitches across four DPNs (smaller hole when you join in the round but harder for less nimble fingers and those worried about twisted stitches).

Option 2: Cast all 8 stitches onto one DPN and as you work the first round of stitches, switch them onto the DPNs.  This will help the work keep the square shape and lessen the risk of twisting stitches in the first round, but will leave a bit bigger of a hole.  This can be remedied when you sew your ends into the project. 

Round 1: KFB into every stitch (16 Stitches total)
Round 2: Knit every stitch
Round 3: *KFB, K1* Repeat until end of the round (24 Stitches)
Round 4: Knit every stitch
Round 5: *KFB, K2* Repeat until end of the round (32 Stitches)
Round 6: Knit every stitch
Round 7: *KFB, K3* Repeat until end of the round (40 Stitches)
Round 8: Knit every stitch
Round 9: *KFB, K4* Repeat until end of the round (48 Stitches)
Round 10: Knit every stitch
Round 11: *KFB, K5* Repeat until end of the round (56 Stitches)
Round 12: Knit every stitch


Begin Pattern: 
You should have a total of 14 stitches on every needle making your grand total 56 stitches. 

Round 1: P1, Cable 8 front, K4, P1
Round 2: P1, K12, P1
Round 3: P1, K12, P1
Round 4: P1, K12, P1
Round 5: P1, K4, Cable 8 back, P1
Round 6: P1, K12, P1
Round 7: P1, K12, P1
Round 8: P1, K12, P1

Repeat these rounds until the sweater measures 9 1/2 inches.  This should  just cover the bottle up until the point where the neck starts to take shape. 

Here you have an option: 
Make the V shaped collar or knit a turtle neck sweater collar.

V Shaped Collar: Instead of continuing in the round you’ll start working back and forth in rows here.  Here you’ll make a ribbed collar by knitting and purling. 

Row 1: *K1, P1* Repeat until end of row
Row 2: *K1, P1* Repeat until end of row

Repeat two rounds until ribbing equals 2 1/2 inches long

Turtle Neck Collar: 
Round 1: *K2, P2* Repeat until end of round.

Repeat Round 1 until  you can fold the collar over and it reaches your desired height. 

Binding off: I like to use a stretchy bind off where you sew the stitches knitwise and purlwise.