A step-by-step guide to knitting the beautiful Julia Jumper.

Ever gotten halfway through a project and thought “Hang on, am I even doing this right?” We have 🙋‍♀️

That’s why we’ve created these step-by-step guides to walk you through the knitting process. 

Even if you've never knitted before, we'll take you from zero to knitting hero in no time 🦸‍♀️

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Before we get started on the pattern we suggest you spend a bit of time learning the basic stitches you’ll need to complete your masterpiece. The Julia Jumper is made using a combination of knit and purl stitches. We put these together to make a 1x1 rib stitch and a stockinette stitch. You'll want to be confident with the knit and purl stitches before you start 🧶 You'll also want to get a hang of tying a slip knot and casting on your stitches which is the first step in any knitting project. 

📹  Watch How To Tie A Slip Knot

📹  Watch How To Cast On

📹  Watch How To Knit Stitch

📹  Watch How To Purl Stitch

You can use the yarn that came in your kit to practice with. Once you've got these mastered you'll find the pattern a cinch! 

👩‍🏫 For a more comprehensive lesson on the basics of knitting visit our Learn How To Knit page. Or jump to our YouTube page and do some exploring. 

TEST YOUR TENSION

First thing's first. Before you start your project, make sure your tension (how tightly or loosely your knitting is) is juuuust right 🥣 We do this by knitting a “tension swatch”. It's a bit like goldilocks, if the tension is too tight, your piece will be too small, and if it's too loose it may not hold its shape and might be too big. 

If done correctly, your 10x10cm knitted swatch should be 7 stitches wide and 9 rows high. 

To test this, jump on your needles, cast on around 12 stitches, then knit in stockinette stitch (row 1 knit, row 2 purl) for around 10 rows. Then measure a 10x10cm square and count your stitches and rows within that space to make sure you're knitting at the correct tension. 

💡 We know knitting a tension swatch can seem like a bit of a drain, but it's really important because the difference of a few millimetres in your tension can lead to a finished piece this is quite different in size to what you intended. 

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

Your kit comes with everything you need to knit your masterpiece. 

• 12mm circular needles 
• 15mm straight needles
• 3-4 balls of Chunky Merino yarn in colour 1
• 3-4 balls of Chunky Merino yarn in colour 2
• Darning needle 

SIZING

You can knit the Julia in size 6-8, 10-12, 14-16 or 18-20. Your pattern is read like this: 6-8 (10-12, 14-16, 18-20).

USING YOUR PATTERN

One of the things we found the hardest when we were learning to knit was keeping track of our rows. Before we were able to easily identify a row of stitches we used a pen and paper to keep track. That's why we've included handy circles in our patterns - you can tick them off as you go. The dashed circles are for the larger sizes. We've also colour-coordinated the circles to help keep track of the colour you're knitting with. 

OKAY, LET’S KNIT UP A STORM! 

COLOUR WORK

To create the vertical colour block on our front and back pieces you'll need to work with two colours at once. In each row, you'll knit the specified number of stitches first in colour 2, then you'll cross the tails of the 2 colours and knit the next lot of stitches in colour 1. Cross the tails will mean you avoid having holes in your work. 

The below video demonstrates the technique we call intarsia which is the fancy word for colour work. The video shows our Christmas jumpers but the technique is the same - so follow this technique when you move from one colour to the other. 

BACK

We knit our masterpiece in pieces, starting with the back panel, then the front, and then the sleeves. Once we have all our pieces we’ll sew the jumper together and knit the ribbed neckline. 

We start with the back panel, it’s the simplest piece of the knit and will give you confidence as you move on to other pieces. We knit from the bottom up, starting at the rib and going up to the shoulders. 

Step 1:

Cast on the required number of stitches using your 12mm circular needles. You'll cast on a section in colour 2 and then a section in colour 1. 

Step 2:

Once you've cast on the right number of stitches you move on to the rib. We knit the rib following the instructions in your pattern. To create a rib we knit 1 stitch, then purl the next. Make sure you’re moving your yarn tail from the back to the front of our stitch to ensure the stitch is executed correctly. 

📹 Watch How To Do A Rib Stitch 

🧶 Make sure you're crossing the yarn when you change colours. 

Step 3:

Next, we move onto using our 15mm straight needles and into stockinette stitch. 

To switch to a different size needle we just hold the new needle (in this case the 15mm straight needle) in our right hand and knit onto the stitch on your 12mm needle in your left hand. Simple! 

Continue knitting half of each row in colour 2 and the other half in colour 1.

Step 4: 

Once we've worked the rows of stockinette we need to cast off our stitches to finish the back piece. 

📹 Watch How To Cast Off

FRONT

Nice work, you're onto the front piece! Now the front is similar to the back but we're going to keep a split in the rib (this is just for the effect - if you'd rather, you can keep the rib joined like we've done in the back), and we'll do some shaping over the last 4 rows to create the hole for our head. 

Step 1 - 2: 

Cast on the stitches. This time you'll have more stitches on your needle in colour 1, rather than colour 2. 

When you're knitting the rib, you won't cross your yarn when you change colour. This will keep your stitches seperate and creates that split in the rib. 

Step 3: 

Knit in stockinette using your 15mm needles.

Step 4:

⚡️ Okay, we're going to shape the neckline now. To do this, we split the work into two shoulders and a space for the head hole. 

📹 Watch How To Knit Your Neckline

You're on a knit row, so you'll knit the allocated number of stitches, and then you'll knit two together to decrease the number of stitches in our row.

📹 Watch How To Knit Two Together

🧶 Make sure you're matching your yarn colour with each stitch. We want to maintain the vertical colour block pattern. 

Step 5:

Next, you'll turn your work over. You'll have a bunch of stitches left on the left needle that you haven't knitted yet- that's fine. Leave them on your needle, for now, we're working up the first shoulder.

Purl your stitches. 

Step 6 - 7: 

Continue shaping your first shoulder. 

Step 8: 

Cast off those stitches and your first shoulder is done! 

Step 9: 

Next, you'll rejoin your yarn to the stitch closest to the end of your left needle. Tie a knot with your yarn tail around the base of that stitch. You're ready to keep knitting! 

First, we're going to cast off some stitches to create that head hole. Then continue onto the second shoulder, knitting two stitches together and then knitting to the end of the row.

STEP 10-12:

Continue knitting the second shoulder in stockinette stitch and decreasing as instructed.

Step 13: 

Cast off the second shoulder. Front panel D.O.N.E! 

Have a stretch and give yourself a pat on the back.

SLEEVES

Onto the sleeves. You'll do two of theses too 😎🧶

We start at the top of the sleeve and knit down to the cuff. We knit this piece flat just like the front and back pieces.

You'll knit one sleeve in colour 1 and one in colour 2. It doesn't matter which you do first as they are identical!

Step 1: 

Using your 15mm straight needles, cast on the correct number of stitches.

Step 2:

We're going to knit in stockinette stitch for the allocated number of rows. This should be a cinch by now! 💪

Step 3: 

To get the balloon shape in our sleeve, we're going to decrease some stitches before we knit the cuff. You'll knit in the sequence set out in your instructions to reduce the number of stitches in this row. 

Step 4 :

Once that’s done you'll change to your 12mm needles to complete a rib stitch for the cuffs.

Step 5:

Cast off your stitches. When you cast off make sure it’s not too tight otherwise you’ll have a really tight wrist hole!

SEWING IT TOGETHER

Now it’s time to get to work with the darning needle to sew your masterpiece together. We lay our pieces flat and sew them together one by one.

📹 Watch How To Sew Your Knit Together

Step 1:

Lay your front and back pieces on a flat surface, the right sides facing you. 

Step 2:

Sew the shoulder panels together using the invisible seam technique, leaving the hole for your head.

Step 3:

Time to attach the sleeves to the body. Make sure the middle of your sleeve is lined up with the shoulder seam. This will ensure the seam of your sleeve is right under your armpit, not halfway around your arm! Once you've made sure it's all lined up, sew the sleeves to the shoulders. 

Step 4:

Fold your jumper in half so it looks like the shape of a T. With the wrong sides facing each other, we're going to sew it together using a Mattress Stitch, from the cuff all the way up the arm to the armpit, then down the side seam to the bottom of your jumper. And then repeat this on the other side. 

💭 We suggest trying to match the colour yarn you use to the jumper to keep it as invisible as possible. It's normal for the wool to get a bit shabby as you go, so we recommend using a few pieces and tying them together underneath as you go!

NECKLINE

We're SO CLOSE! I can see the finish line 🎢🙌

We knit the neck ‘in the round’. This means we use our circular needles and knit in a loop instead of knitting back and forth in a row.

The neck is knitted with colour 1 and in 1x1 rib stitch - you’ll be pretty good at this now!

Pick up 36-44 stitches in equal distance from around the neck hole using our 12mm circular needles. Once you’ve got all your stitches on your needles you join the loop together and start the rib stitch. It’s a good idea to loop a hair tie or spare piece of yarn over your needle as a stitch marker so you can keep track of each loop.

📹 Watch How To Pick Up Stitches

Knit in the round until you’ve completed 5 loops then cast off.

💡 Now this part is critical! Cast of extra loosely!! You need a loose cast off in order to be able to fit your head through the hole. Rib stitch has a stretch to it, but if you cast off too tightly you'll have a hole that's too small for your head to fit through. Been there, done that and DON'T recommend 😝