Handmade Wardrobe | Cinder

Text reads, Cinder Sweater Project Notes over a photo of a woman holding a coffee wearing a light grey sweater with a colour work yoke in orange and purple.

I’m not sure you can have too many colour work yoke sweaters like Cinder* by Jessica McDonald in your wardrobe. I definitely see my collection of sweaters with beautiful yokes growing over the years and I’d happily knit this pattern again in a completely different colour palette.

The designer Jessica McDonald reached out last year when she was working on a children’s wear collection to see if I would like to knit one of her designs for my nephew as she’d seen me knitting the Dog Star pullover.

Although I love her children wear designs, if I’m going to accept a gifted pattern I want to make sure it’s something I would purchase myself and I just so happened to have Cinder in my list of patterns to knit. So for full transparency,

*Cinder by Jessica McDonald was kindly gifted to me.

Cinder Sweater Knitting Pattern

I found the Cinder pattern easy to follow and with a simple modification to the sleeves, I love the finished garment. German short rows are used to raise the back neck and I like the neat neckline and ribbed collar.

When knitting the yoke section you introduce two contrast colours which at times you use at the same time as the main colour.

I took my time and didn’t find it fiddly to manage 3 colours even though I wasn’t using any special colour work knitting techniques. I simply dropped my working yarn and picked up the colour I needed without getting in a tangle.

Even though I substituted the yarn called for in the Cinder pattern, I stuck closely to the colours used in the original.

The designer Jessica McDonald suggests choosing three colours that strongly contrast with each other and I can see why. The end result is a bold yoke which sings against the simple grey background.

The yoke of a sweater is being knit using light grey, orange and purple shetland wool. The knitting is laid flat on a wooden table top and a hand is seen holding the needle.

Jamieson & Smith 2ply Jumper Weight Yarn

Cinder calls for a DK weight yarn with a gauge of 24sts and 32rnds per 4 inches, which is the same as my Pheasant Pullover.

The Jamieson & Smith 2ply Jumper Weight yarn used to knit my Pheasant Pullover is actually a light fingering weight yarn. Having used it before, I knew I liked the light, warm fabric I’d get when knitting at the gauge needed for Cinder so I went ahead and purchased the shetland wool from Jamieson & Smith.

I was more that happy to add another sweater to my wardrobe in this yarn and I love that it comes in 25g balls which are perfect for colour work projects.

From experience I knew that a using needles with a slightly blunt tip made the knitting more enjoyable so that’s exactly what I did for Cinder.

When I got to the body I even used this project to practice knitting and reading at the same time. The rounds and rounds of stockinette in the body, paired with a grippy yarn and needles that were not too sharp, all combined to be the perfect conditions for knitting without looking. I finally mastered a skill I’ve coveted for years!

Everyone’s tolerance for wearing wool against the skin is different, but this is a woolly yarn I can happily wear without irritation.

My Pheasant Pullover has kept it’s shape and has hardly any pilling after 2+ years of wear so I’m confident Cinder is a sweater I’ll be wearing for years too. I can’t see this classic pullover ever going out of style.

Alex is wearing the Cinder sweater by Jessica McDonald which she knit using shetland wool. The main colour is a light grey and the yoke is orange and purple which contrasts beautifully. Alex smiles and holds a basket of yarn.

Alex wears a colour work yoke sweater in grey, orange and purple that she knit using shetland wool. She is looking away from the camera with a smile holding a cup of coffee.

Fit and Modifications

I knit size 37.5” which gives me 2 inches of positive ease. I’ll admit I was a tiny bit concerned it would be too tight as I tired it on throughout the knitting but I was right to have faith that blocking would come to the rescue.

The yarn relaxed and the sweater feels so cosy and comfortable since soaking in wool wash and laying flat to dry.

I could feel the sleeves would be tighter than I’d like even after blocking so I did a simple modification.

After the first 2 decrease rounds when I realised the sleeves were getting too snug, I stopped decreasing.

I didn’t start again until I’d knit 11” (the point where my arm naturally starts getting smaller as it tapers towards my wrist) from where I had joined the sleeves.

I then continued the decreases and started the ribbing for the cuffs when I had 58sts on the needles. I don’t like my cuffs too fitted so this felt like a comfortable circumference for me.

Being able to try the garment on as I knit, so I can adjust a pattern to my body as I go, is one of the reasons I love knitting top down sweaters so much.