Sweater knitted with yarn leftovers

The trick here is to switch between knitting with 2 strands of a fine yarn and knitting with 1 strand of a coarser yarn. Do this to ensure that the knitting gauge remains more or less the same. We chose an off-white shade as the background colour in this sweater. Experiment with colours of your choice. This pattern provides no instructions about changing colour. If you wish, you can work the yarn tails into your knitting when you change yarn to avoid having to weave in all the ends.

Using circular knitting needle size 8.0 mm, cast on 120 stitches (sts). Work back and forth. Work 5 rows (rs) of knit (k)1, purl (p)1 rib.

Continue in stocking stitch (k on the right side (RS), p on the wrong side (WS)). Dec at the start of a r and inc at the end of a r: At the start of every r, knit the first 2 sts together (k2tog) purlwise. At the end of every r, make 1 st purlwise in the loop between second last and last sts to ensure that there are always 120 sts in the r. Work 35 cm (incl. rib).

Armhole shaping: Next WS r: p25, cast off 6 sts, p54, cast off 6 sts, p29. To continue, work the right front. Leave the remaining sts on the needle.

k2tog purlwise at the start of the next RS r and k2tog at the end of the r for the next 3 RS rs.

Then, k2tog purlwise only at the start of the r. Continue until 10 sts remain. Cast off.

k2tog at the start of the first 3 RS rs. On each RS r, k2tog at the end of the r until 10 sts rem. Cast off.

Divide the back sts into 2 x 27 sts. Work each half separately.

k2tog 3 times on the armhole edge and k2tog on the neck edge in every RS r until 10 sts rem. Cast off. Work the other half of the back in the same way, but reverse the shaping. Sew shoulder seams

Starting with the left front where the V-neck begins, pick up 46 sts up to and including the rib at the waist.

Continue as follows: Row 1: Work k1,p1 rib. Row 2: (p1, k1) three times. Now measure up for 4 buttonholes. Work the buttonholes as follows: p1, k1, p1, lift p over k. Knit rib between the buttonholes and k1 after the 4th buttonhole. Row 3: Work k1p1 rib, working a yarn over needle to replace the stitch “lost” at each buttonhole. Row 4: Cast off. The rib on the upper part of the left front: Pick up 30 sts from the top and across the rib you have most recently worked. Row 1: k1, p1. Row 2: p1, k1, until last 3 sts, make a buttonhole. Row 3: k1, p1. Row 4: Cast off

Right front: Pick up 56 sts, knit 3 rs of k1p1 rib. Cast off on row 4.

Backs: Pick up 28 sts on each half of the back separately and knit 3 rs of rib. Cast off.

Using circular knitting needle size 8.0 mm, cast on 32 sts. Work back and forth. Work 4 rows of k1p1 rib. Switch to stocking stitch and make 1 st purlwise in the loop between alternate sts = 48 sts.

Continue increasing at the start and end of all RS rs: Make 1 st purlwise into the loop between the 1st and 2nd sts and between the last 2 sts in the r until there is a total of 66 sts in the r. Armhole shaping: Cast off 3 sts on each side = 60 sts.

Now continue decreasing (k2tog) on both sides of all RS rs until there are 36 sts in the r.

Next RS row: k2tog 18 times. Work one row: p to end. Next row: k2 tog to end and cast off as you go. This creates the puffed sleeve effect. Work the second sleeve in the same way.

Sew the sleeves. Sew the sleeves into the sweater. Weave in ends.