Sunday, February 3, 2008

Captain America Sweater


Captain America Sweater
Originally uploaded by telcontar328

Okay, this is the official Pattern and Photo post.

Read all instructions before beginning. I'm afraid they may be a little jumbled. If you can't make sense of something, leave a comment!

Size: Boys' 8. (Upsizing should be easy--I include all pertinent measurements.)
Gauge: 16 stitches to 4", 23 rows to 4", using worsted-weight yarn and US 9 needles.
Yarn:
Red Heart Super Saver in White, Cherry Red, and Royal.

Vertical stripes:
With red yarn, CO 36 sts. (CO row will run from bottom of armhole to bottom edge of sweater. Sweater shown has a 9" CO row.)

Work as follows:
Row 1: K across
Row 2: K 8, P to end
AT THE SAME TIME working in color pattern: 10 rows red, 10 rows white
until work measures about 28". Finish with 10 white rows. (Length of work will run around waist circumference of wearer. Sweater shown has 16 stripes.)

Sew or graft end of work to CO edge.

You now have a ring of striped stockinette stitch with garter-stitch "ribbing" along one edge. Lay it flat with seam/graft at one edge, to fall under armhole, unless it's totally invisible or you don't care.

Yoke:
Using blue yarn, pick up 56 stitches along half the stockinette edge of striped ring--that is, from 80 of the 160 rows. (This joins one end of the yoke to the body of the sweater.)

Work in stockinette, making sure right sides of blue and red/white work face the same way, for 5-1/2". (This will give a total back waist length of 14 inches.)

Neck Opening:
Work 17 sts, join new yarn, bind off 22, work rem 17. Working both sides at once with separate strands of yarn, work 5-1/2" in stock st. With single strand, work first 17 sts, cast on 22, work rem 17. Cut yarn not used in this row. (Square neck opening will be 22" around. Measure intended wearer's head if you adapt neck shaping--kids' heads are bigger than you think.)

Work all sts in stockinette for 5 1/2 more inches. Graft or sew to other half of striped ring's stockinette edge. (Armhole circumference 16-1/2". If a smaller armhole is desired, cast on more stitches for Vertical Stripes and work Yoke to a shorter length before and after Neck Opening.)

Sleeves (make 2):
May be picked up and worked circularly, or worked flat and seamed up.

Pick up/cast on 64 sts with blue yarn (for 16" armhole).

Work stockinette st for 1". Decrease 2 sts, spaced however you like. Continue in stockinette, decreasing 2 sts every 2" and AT THE SAME TIME working color patt: blue for 8", white for 4", red for 4". When sleeve measures 18" long, work knit-1-purl-1 rib with red yarn for 2" over 48 sts. Bind off in rib.

Collar:
May be picked up and worked circularly, or knit flat and seamed/grafted on.

With blue yarn, pick up/CO 100 sts.

Work in k1p1 rib until collar is at least 1-1/2". Bind off in rib.

Do any necessary seaming/grafting. Weave in all ends. You're done! Put on some patriotic music and celebrate.


Variations:
Captain America's costume has a ski mask, with 2 holes for the eyes and one for the mouth/chin, instead of the collar. Unfortunately, I can't find a pattern to link to; the best I can do is direct you to Knitty's Jackyll & Hide and let you adapt it yourself. It's pretty simple.

Cap's costume also has a white capital "A" on the forehead of the mask, a white 5-pointed star on the front of the yoke and another on the back. You can graph these using knitter's graph paper, available for free from various web sites, and duplicate-stitch them on or work them in intarsia.

If you prefer, you can knit the star separately--one pattern is here, there are many others--and sew it on.

This is an original pattern, copyright Maria Grace McClamrock 2008, based on a costume design by Jack Kirby from 1940. This is a fandom tribute and nobody is deriving any profit from it, yadda yadda Yoda.

6 comments:

J.A.M.P. said...

I'm doing this pattern (my kid adores Cap!), but when I do the verticle stripes, I do:
Row1: K all
Row2: K8 then P to end

This way, the stripes are done as Stockinette, except for a garter border at the bottom. Is that what you meant? Or did you do your stripes as garter stitch?

I'm making several adjustments so it will fit my 5T son. Would you like me to send you my notes on Ravelry when I'm done?

Unknown said...

I want to make this or my 13 year old daughter, who obsessed with all things Captain America, and Avengers as well as Loki the misunderstood tantrum kid. Lolol as she puts it. How many more stitches would I cast on for a 33" chest? Sorry still learning how to increase patterns. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

RavenAntonia - because this sweater has an unusual construction, the number of stitches you cast on actually increases the length, not the width. (I'd suggest you measure your daughter's waist length from wherever you want the ribbing to sit, up to her underbust / bra-band area, and multiply that number by your stitches per inch to get the number of stitches to cast on. This sweater is written at a gauge of 4 stitches per inch.)

For a 33" chest, I'd suggest adding four more stripes to the red-and-white striped piece, so you'd have 20 total instead of 16. Each stripe is about 2 inches wide, and this sweater was originally written for a 26" chest with 2" positive ease, as I recall. (Again, you'll want to measure and make sure the piece isn't too tight or too baggy before you sew it up.)

Then you'll pick up 7 stitches from each stripe on the front half of the sweater, so 70 total instead of 56. I hope the rest of the instructions are clear enough that you can easily adapt them to your daughter's measurements! :D Good luck!

(If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me on Ravelry.com; I'm telcontar over there. I've, um, forgotten my Blogger login, which is why I'm not commenting as the blog owner... *eyeroll*)

Jude said...

This is the best pattern ever, I gave it to my extreeeeemly talented best friend who made it for my 2 year old boy who thinks he is Captain America, and he just LOVES it - thank you for the pattern.

The Wife said...

I've sent you a message at Ravelry with some questions, if you get a chance to respond. Thanks!

The Wife said...

I completed it! I'm not sure how well it turned out (I don't think I measured things properly), but I'm still VERY pleased with myself!