The Petite Knit Festival Sweater has such a fun design, why not make 2?! That’s what I thought anyway when I finished the first one. But really, after making 2 of the same jumpers I’ll happily pause on making any bobbles for awhile 😉 I started the 3yr old size one back in October 2021 and finished it at Christmas 2021. Then I paused for a month, started my rainbow version in February and just finished it (April). So I guess I’m averaging about 2 months per sweater in terms of how long it takes to knit something. Also pleased to see the knit quality much improved on festival sweater 2 compared to number 1! Luckily I’ll be wearing mine for longer than baby T will be wearing his for sure.
Since Petite Knit patterns are so popular, I decided to write these reviews with notes and tutorial lists in case it is helpful to someone one day. The instructions on Petite Knit patterns are “ok” but they are like a big 4 sewing pattern in that they assume you already know what you’re doing. I am so grateful to my IRL (in real life) knitty friends Linda, Kim and total knitting guru Valerie for helping me out with my makes so this is my way of paying it forward!
By the way, I was too happy I finished to have blocked these before taking the pics. The jump up and down YES!!! moment was when the child voluntarily pointed at his jumper and asked me to help put it on
Festival sweater basic pattern details
- Yarn: DK weight, I used Scheepjes Merino Softfun (superwash) which is a blend of 50% merino, 25% acrylic and 25% microfibre. Whilst the blend might not be everyone’s cup of tea, the colour range is AMAZING compared to so many other brands I’ve seen. In an attempt to be sustainable via knit what I have, I used leftover yarn from other projects for the bobble stripes. So one of the orange rows in the arm is different from the body and the other arm, but I decided there was no way I was buying more yarn for the sake of one row of knitting! An inconsistency that I’m definitely not noticing or caring when I wear the rainbow sweater.
- Gauge: “standard”-ish gauge of 21×28 based on a lot of other patterns I’ve considered making.
- Needles: I achieved gauge with 4mm needles. For the ribbing, I knitted with 3.25mm (my knitting needle set contains only 3.25 or 3.75mm!)
Bobble row tips
The most fun (but also tedious) parts of making the Petite Knit Festival Sweater were the bobble rows. They are worked over 2 rows and the bobbles are K3Tog, which is NOT nice to knit! Petite Knit has a video on how to do it, but I cannot understand Danish so I might have missed valuable information in the voiceover. Anyway after some experimentation, this is what I recommend:
- Practise a row first when you swatch (the most convenient time) to check your tensioning.
- On the setup row (ie the first of two rows to do the one line of bobbles,) I gave a little slack before each bobble stitch. Because, knitting with my regular tension, the bobbles were too tight. Knitting the rows loosely, the bobbles were too loose.
- Use a left needle on the left side when doing the second row – makes it easier to put your needle through the loops when you’re doing a K3tog. It won’t affect the stitch side.
Neckband observations
The sweater is knitted top-down starting from the neckband. Knit the neckband with a purl row at the halfway point, fold in half then knit the edges together. Next row is immediately starting the yoke in stockinette, with M1 increases. Irrespective of my less than perfect knitting, even on the sample photos I found the foldover too bulky for my liking. Also I think any the M1s have a tendency to create pinprick holes, which I find as annoying as visible hand stitches on eg bias binding on a neckline finish in a sewn garment!
But, in the name of learning I did the folded neckband in the first smaller jumper:
Then on the second one I simply knitted half the length, and changed from knitting ribbing to stockinette (and added the M1s).
Still room for improvement!
It might be unfounded but I feel like the weight of the sweater is going to drag down and stretch out the neckline at some point …
My next make is for a friend and it has construction where you make the yoke, then pick up stitches for the neckband. I’ll be interested to see how that turns out.
Tutorial list for the Petite Knit Festival Sweater
I used the same tutorials as the Sunday Cardigan I made before, here’s a copy-paste of the list.
- Cast on for neckband ribbing “Alternate cable cast on” – Sheep & Stitch
- M1R and M1L without holes – Yarn Sub. There’s still pin prick size holes, noticeable if you’re looking closely. I’m not sure that can be helped if you’re using M1s.
- Casting on underarm stitches – Suzann Bryan
- Picking up stitches for the sleeve (no holes under the arms!) – Suzann Bryan
- Tubular or Italian cast off for ribbing – Suzann Bryan – I used this for the ribbing. To fix the jog at the end if you are doing a hem band or cuff in the round, Suzann has a video for that too. Start watching from 10:52 on how to finish.
And that’s it! I really love the finished result, and I can’t wait to take a matchy matchy pic next time. I’ve totally become a knitting addict and I’m determined to get good at it, so there’ll be more coming on the blog and my IG for sure.
Till next time
Kate x