Knitting Patterns / June 1, 2020

Pride Yoke – Rainbow Circular Yoke Sweater Knit Top-Down (Size Inclusive Knitting Pattern)

Hey hey hey!

As I write this, it’s June 1st and do you know what that means? It’s Pride Month!

20% of all proceeds for the month of June for this sweater (and the Pride Yoke crochet version) have been donated to Rainbow Resource Center, a Winnipeg organization supporting the 2SLGBTQ+ community in the form of counselling, education, and programming for individuals ranging from children through to 55±. It also supports families, friends, and employers of 2SLGBTQ+ individuals. Thanks for helping me help them!

Find this pattern on my website, Ravelry, and Etsy.

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About

I’ve wanted to come out with a design to celebrate Pride Month for years – and I finally made it a priority earlier this year. I started designing 2 rainbow sweaters in March, and they are finally ready to make their debut! (The crochet version will release on June 19th!)

The Pride Yoke is a circular yoke sweater knit seamlessly from the top-down. It’s designed to have approx. 2-4″ of positive ease, and is graded for 9 sizes ranging from XS-5XL. This is hands-down the best drape I’ve ever achieved with a knit item, mostly due to using a 100% bamboo yarn from Lion Brand called Truboo. (Read my Truboo review here.) I designed this sweater with summer in mind, so that it’s lightweight, nice and flowy, and super breathable.

I wanted to design a sweater with a rainbow element, but I wanted it to be subtle enough that I could wear it everyday and incorporate it into my wardrobe. I don’t usually like a ton of colour and usually stick with neutrals or earth tones! I personally love to wear white, so I used white as the base colour. I then added 6 stripes (although you can knit as many stripes as you like) into the yoke, knitting just 2 rounds for each stripe. I am so happy with the look of these thin stripes, and I think I achieved the look I was going for!

It’s got a subtle pop of colour, it’s light and delicate, flowy, and has great drape; yet it still seems like a neutral clothing item to me since it doesn’t have too much colour!

This pattern has been professionally tech edited to be as correct as possible. All sizes have been tested!

Keep scrolling for some tester pics at the end of this post – you’re not gonna wanna miss these!

Construction

This sweater is worked seamlessly from the top-down. First, we cast on stitches for the neckline and work some ribbing.

Note that this ribbing doesn’t have a lot of bounce, and the gauge for the ribbing is almost identical to the gauge of the stockinette when knitting with this bamboo. If you choose to use a wool or other animal fiber, your neckline will have more “bounce” and may seem tighter than my relaxed, bamboo sample. One of my testers used wool and chose to knit the neckline ribbing with one needle size larger to accommodate for the tight ribbing of the wool.

Next, short rows are added to the back-neck for a better fitting sweater, and then increases are worked in the yoke until reaching a certain measurement while simultaneously knitting the rainbow stripes at specific measurements based on the size you are knitting.

Once you finish knitting the yoke, the sleeves are placed on hold and the body is knit to your desired length. You will bind off in pattern after working some more ribbing along the hem. After the body is complete, the sleeves are picked up and knit last with matching ribbing at the wrist cuffs.

Yardage Info

I used Lion Brand Truboo for this sweater (100% bamboo) although my testers used a wide variety of yarns that I will list below to give you ideas of yarns you could use to make your own Pride Yoke! Truboo is a very slinky DK weight yarn that has a subtle sheen to it, which I love.

I would recommend using Truboo or Coboo for this pattern, or another bamboo fiber similar to the one used in the sample shown. This will give you the same great drape as the one shown here. You can use any other fiber that you want, just know that the drape will be a little different – which is totally fine!

Some other yarns used during testing include:

Lion Brand Cupcake
Lion Brand Coboo
McMullin Fiber Co Posh Light Worsted
Knit Picks/WeCrochet Wool of the Andes Sport Weight
King Cole Bamboo Cotton Solids
Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo Double Knitting
Lion Brand Comfy Cotton Blend
Berroco modern cotton DK
Lion Brand Touch of Merino
Lion Brand Bon Bons (for the stripes)
Scheepjes catona
Knitca cotton

Now here’s what I used in the pattern –

Main Colour:

5 (5, 5, 6, 6) (7, 7, 8, 8) skeins of Lion Brand Truboo in White for sizes XS (S, M, L, XL) (2X, 3X, 4X, 5X).

1040 (1075, 1150, 1250, 1350) (1525, 1650, 1750, 1850) yds of similar category 3, DK weight yarn that matches gauge.

and

6 Contrasting Colours:
Approx. 5 yds (for all sizes) of each:
1. Scarlet
2. Tangerine
3. Yellow
4. Celery
5. Blue
6. Mauve

Sample shown has 6 stripes. If you would prefer 7 stripes, you will need 5 yds of a 7th contrasting colour. If you don’t want to buy 1 full skein of Truboo for each stripe colour, you can use what you have in your stash so long as the gauge is similar.

Testers also used self-striping yarn to achieve the look of different coloured stripes – this would be a great budget-friendly way to achieve the same look without buying 6-7 separate skeins.

This yardage is for a long sleeve sweater; keep in mind that less yardage will be needed if you choose to bind off earlier for shorter sleeves.

Sizing

This is a size-inclusive pattern, written for 9 sizes:
XS (S, M, L, XL)(2X, 3X, 4X, 5X) to fit bust sizes 28-30 (32-34, 36-38, 40-42, 44-46) (48-50, 52-54, 56-58, 60-62)“ based on the CYC sizing standards. There is also 2-4″ of positive ease built in to the sweater, so you can play around with the sizing depending on how loose or tight you’d like your sweater to be. Some of my testers sized down and still had a great-fitting sweater, and others sized up for a really comfy fit that looked just as great!

When choosing a size, refer to my sizing chart in the pattern and choose a garment bust size that is 2-4″ larger than your actual bust measurement, depending on how much positive ease you would like in your sweater.

Model has 34″ bust and is wearing a size small with a garment bust measurement of 36″, meaning there are 2″ of positive ease.

Tester Photos

Here are some photos from my fabulous testers as well as the yarn they used! I think it’s really helpful to see other versions made in different materials on different bodies, so here’s some really lovely photos my tester group took! I included everybody’s Instagram handle in case you want to check out some more of their work. I wanted to include this section here so you can see how truly versatile one pattern can be! Each different fiber used gives the sweater a whole new vibe. And you can see how each person made it their own! Keep scrolling to see how the knit Pride Yoke looks on beautiful bodies of all types.

You can also check out the Ravelry Projects for this pattern here.