A few months ago Grumperina did some fabulous tutorials on spiral knitting. Her socks inspired me to play around with some stash yarn and make a baby sweater. I used one ball of Swish DK in Moss and three in Nutmeg. The effect isn’t nearly as bold as the original socks, but with more colors you could easily make this sweater as bright as you like!
The key to spiral knitting is that you use all four balls of yarn at once, and each color builds on the next, so that there is never a “jog” in the knitting at the end of the round. As I worked this sweater I couldn’t help but imagine my yarns chasing each other round and round, but never catching up until the very end, and so of course the classic nursery rhyme “popped” into my head!
Monkey Chased the Weasel is worked from the top down, primarily in the round. The hems are worked in garter stitch, and the end result is that this entire sweater is constructed using only the knit stitch (and a few decreases). No purling required!
Any DK weight yarn can be used, in two-four colors. Using more colors does not increase the difficulty at all, so have fun with color! You will need between 100 and 200 yds of each color, depending on the size you choose.
Monkey Chased the Weasel is available for download from the sidebar. Just click the picture to get more information.
