Valley Yarns Essex Knitting Pattern

Valley Yarns Essex Stranded Colorwork Pullover

What Is Being Made

The Valley Yarns Essex is a children's pullover sweater featuring playful stranded colorwork designs. The garment showcases trains running around a track on the lower body, while cars circle the yoke area. This design is available in six sizes ranging from 12 months to 12 years old, with finished chest measurements from 20 inches to 29 inches. The sample shown is in the 6–8 year size. This intermediate-level knitting project is ideal for crafters who enjoy colorwork techniques and want to create a quick, wearable garment for children.

Techniques Used

The Essex employs several advanced knitting techniques to achieve its distinctive appearance and construction:

• Stranded Colorwork: The primary technique throughout the sweater, with two-color stranding used in both the body and yoke sections. Stranded colorwork involves carrying unused yarn colors across the back of the work, creating a dense, insulated fabric with excellent stitch definition.
• Worked in the Round: The body is constructed seamlessly in the round from the bottom up, eliminating the need for seaming along the sides. This method creates a continuous tube of fabric and allows for easy colorwork pattern placement.
• Bottom-Up Construction: The sweater is built from the hem upward, allowing knitters to try on the garment during construction and adjust length as needed before committing to the yoke shaping.
• Seamless Construction: The design is nearly seamless, with the only seaming required at the underarms where sleeves are grafted to the body. Sleeves are knitted separately and then joined to the yoke, which is worked with integrated decrease shaping.

Stitches and Stitch Details

The Essex is primarily worked in stockinette stitch, which provides a smooth, classic fabric base that showcases the stranded colorwork patterns. The gauge is 22 stitches and 30 rows per 4 inches in stockinette stitch when worked with the larger needles and blocked. Ribbed edgings at the hems, cuffs, and neckline add elasticity and a finished appearance. The yoke features stranded colorwork with integrated decrease shaping to taper from the wider body to the narrower neckline.

Materials: Yarn and Needles

The Essex is designed to be knitted with Valley Yarns Valley Superwash DK, a 100% Extra Fine Merino yarn that offers both softness and easy-care properties. The yarn comes in 50-gram balls with 137 yards per ball. The pattern requires three colors: the main color (MC) in Fawn, ranging from 2 to 6 balls depending on size; Contrast Color 1 (CC1) in Blue, requiring 1 to 3 balls; and Contrast Color 2 (CC2) in Natural, requiring 1 ball across all sizes.

The needle requirements include multiple circular needle sizes to accommodate different sections of the sweater. US size 5 (3.75 mm) circular needles in 16-inch, 24-inch, and 32-inch lengths, plus double-pointed needles for sleeves, are used for the main body and colorwork. US size 6 (4.00 mm) needles in the same lengths may be necessary to maintain proper gauge in the colorwork sections, as stranded work can tighten the fabric. US size 4 (3.50 mm) needles are used for the sleeve, hem, and neck edgings to create a snug, elastic finish. Additional materials include stitch markers for tracking pattern repeats and a tapestry needle for grafting and weaving in ends.

Construction Overview

The Essex follows a logical construction sequence designed to minimize seaming. Sleeves are made first using the Long-Tail Cast-On method, then worked in the round with ribbed cuffs. The main body is constructed as a single piece worked in the round from the hem upward, featuring the train-themed stranded colorwork pattern around the lower section. Once the body reaches the appropriate length, the sleeves are joined to create the yoke, where the car-themed colorwork pattern begins. The yoke is shaped with strategic decreases worked into the stranded pattern, tapering smoothly to the neckline. This seamless approach, combined with the quick-knitting DK weight yarn, makes the Essex an efficient project for intermediate knitters seeking to expand their colorwork skills.