Knit up a quick, fun sweater for a little one in your life with our basic bulky baby sweater pattern!
Design Story and Inspiration for this Easy Baby Sweater
I love making baby things, even though it’s been years since we’ve had a baby in the house. They are just so cute!! For this pattern, I wanted something that would work up very quickly and something that would make a great last-minute baby shower gift.
So I decided to make a tiny baby sweater. I knitted up the preemie size, but it’s sized all the way up to 12 months.
Yarn Options for Our Free Baby Sweater Knitting Pattern
For this design, I chose Lion Brand Hue + Me. It’s a bulky yarn (category #5) that comes in modern shades and is great to knit with. I’m trying to use up more of my stash this year, and I had 6 skeins (2 each of 3 different colors), so it was a perfect fit… although I still have 5.5 skeins left. 🤣
This sweater can easily be made with just a skein or two (or three if making the largest size), so it’s a great stash buster!
You can use any bulky weight yarn in your stash that gets gauge (be sure to check gauge, it’s very important for a sweater that fits!).
Pattern Details for This Classic Baby Sweater
This knitted baby sweater is knit in four pieces – front, back, and two sleeves, and seamed using the mattress stitch. It’s a great way to practice finishing skills, such as seaming, picking up stitches and blocking.
There is very minimal shaping to this design, just increasing a bit at the sleeve hems and decreasing at the neck edge, so no special skills required!
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Basic Bulky Baby Sweater
What You’ll Need
Yarn: Lion Brand Hue + Me – 1 (1, 2, 2, 3) skeins Agave (Bulky #5, 137yd/125g)
Knitting Needles: US sizes 10.5 (6.50 mm) and 11 (8.0 mm) straight needles
Notions: Yarn needle, scissors, stitch holders or waste yarn
Skill Level: Easy
Size: Finished Chest Size 14.75 (16, 17.25, 18.5, 20, 21.5)”/37.5 (40.5, 44, 47, 51, 54.5) cm to fit Preemie (Newborn, 3m, 6m, 9m, 12m)
Gauge: 12 sts and 15 rows = 4” (10 cm) in Stockinette stitch (St st) with larger needles
Abbreviations
Knit (k)
Purl (p)
Check it out on my sweet little doll (since I don’t have any babies in the house to model for me, I knit for him lol):
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Basic Baby Sweater Knitting Pattern
Back
With smaller needles, cast on 22 (24, 26, 28, 30, 32) sts.
Work in K2P2 rib for 4 (4, 4, 4, 6, 6) rows. Change to larger needles.
Work in St st until back measures 8.5 (10.5, 11.75, 13, 13.5, 14.25) inches/21.5 (26.5, 30, 33, 34.5, 36) cm from beginning, ending with a WS row.
Bind off 5 (6, 6, 6, 6, 7) sts knitwise for shoulder, place 12 (12, 14, 16, 18, 18) sts on holder for back neck, bind off 5 (6, 6, 6, 6, 7) sts knitwise for second shoulder.
Front
With smaller needles, cast on 22 (24, 26, 28, 30, 32) sts.
Work in K2P2 rib for 4 (4, 4, 4, 6, 6). Change to larger needles.
Work in St st until back measures 7 (9, 10.25, 11, 11.5, 12.25) inches/18 (23, 26, 28, 29, 31) cm from beginning.
Front Neckline
Knit 7 (8, 8, 9, 9, 10) sts, place 8 (8, 10, 10, 12, 12) sts on holder for front neck, join other end of yarn and knit 7 (8, 8, 9, 9, 10) sts – 7 (8, 8, 9, 9, 10) sts on each shoulder. Work both sides at same time using two ends.
Decrease 1 st at neck edge every right side row 2 (2, 2, 3, 3, 3) times – 5 (6, 6, 6, 6, 7) sts.
Work last WS row. Bind off knitwise at shoulders.
Sleeve (Make 2)
With smaller needles, cast on 14 (14, 16, 16, 18, 18) sts.
Work in K2P2 rib for 4 (4, 4, 4, 6, 6) rows, increasing 2 (2, 2, 4, 4, 4) sts on last row – 16 (16, 18, 20, 22, 22) sts.
Change to larger needles. Begin working in St st.
Work even in St st until sleeve measures 5.5 (5.75, 6, 6.5, 7, 7.5) inches/14 (14.5, 15, 16.5, 18, 19)cm from beginning. Bind off.
Finishing
Block pieces to measurements. Use the mattress stitch for all seaming.
Sew left shoulder seam.
Collar
With smaller needles, pick up and k 4 (4, 4, 5, 5, 5) sts along left front neck, k 8 (8, 10, 10, 12, 12) front held sts, pick up and k 4 (4, 4, 5, 5, 5) sts along right front neck, k 12 (12, 14, 16, 18, 18) back held sts — 28 (28, 32, 36, 40, 40) sts.
Work 3 rows in k2p2 rib.
Bind off loosely in rib or use a stretchy bind off such as Tubular bind off. If you bind this off too tightly, it won’t fit over baby’s head!
Seam right shoulder and collar opening. Set in sleeves. Seam underarm and sleeve seams.
Weave in ends.
Final Thoughts on This Basic Bulky Baby Sweater
I had SO much fun designing this little baby sweater, and I hope you love it as much as I do! It’s a simple and fun knit and took me about 2 days working on it very part-time. I’m a pretty slow knitter, so I’m sure many of you could finish it much faster than that. 😀
Happy Knitting!
Amanda
