airplane sweater how to

Originally posted:  November 30, 2011


I thought I would post a how-to for Little Pilot’s airplane sweater (you can read about it here).  It was based on a couple of patterns and turned out pretty well.

 The two patterns that I used were both free.  Yay, I love free :)

The raglan sleeve cardigan pattern was this one from The Brown Stitch:

The airplane came from this Patons blanket pattern (minus the cloud).

The yarn used was Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino.  This is the yarn used for most of Little Pilot’s hand knits.  It is super soft and suits his skin really well. This yarn is a dk weight yarn (as opposed to worsted weight as recommended) and so we had to adjust the sweater pattern quite a bit.

The airplane was a little larger than the truck on the original pattern.  Little Pilot’s sweater is approx. 12-18 mos. size.   If you are making a smaller size you may need to shrink the airplane down a bit.

The following are the changes that were made for his sweater.  I recommend printing off/pulling up both patterns (It should help the comments below make a little more sense :) ).

Sleeves:

• CO 36 sts using 3.25mm round needle
• we added the stripes to the ribbing to match the bottom of the sweater
• switch to 4mm round needle for St st
• increased 2 sts every 6th row until you reach 58 sts = 66 rows in St st
• 10 sts onto scrap yarn (for the armpit)

Body:

• CO 150 sts using 3.25 mm round needle (complete rib as per truck pattern)
• knit 6 rows in St st using 4mm needle
• begin airplane pattern:  knit 88 sts on right side and start airplane (right tail tip)
• on the 61st row of the airplane pattern begin to join the sleeves to the body:  on the right side row knit 32 sts.  slip 10 sts from body onto a scrap piece of yarn. knit 48 sts from right sleeve  followed by 66 sts from the body continued in airplane pattern.  slip next 10 sts from body onto scrap yarn. knit 48 sts from left sleeve followed by the final 32 sts from the body.
• next row p to end continuing in pattern
• Complete raglan decreases 17 times (as per truck pattern) continuing in the airplane pattern
• neck shaping:  Cast-off 5 sts at the beginning of the 81st row of airplane pattern. Repeat with 82nd row. Cast-off 3 sts at the beginning of the next 2 rows.  Cast-off 2 sts at beginning of next 6 rows. Cast-off 1 st at next 2 rows.
• Complete collar and button rows as per truck pattern (we added buttons all the way down).

Wow!  The above probably looks pretty confusing.  If anyone would like to try this pattern.  Feel free to ask me as many questions as you would like.  Hopefully I haven’t sent anyone into a brain twist  :)

The following pictures are for Mummu’s enjoyment.  She only likes posts with Little Pilot in them and since this sweater is her handiwork  I must oblige.  I must admit that I probably enjoy the pictures just as much if not more :)

Thanks for checking out Little Pilot’s favourite sweater.

linked to: the CSI project