The Scrappy Stripe designed by © Mona Kay
The Scrappy Stripe by Mona Kay is a free colorful sweater knitting pattern designed to turn leftover DK-weight yarn into a fun, wearable pullover.
The sweater combines a simple body with playful striped balloon sleeves. It is worked seamlessly in the round using bottom-up raglan construction, making it an especially appealing project if your yarn stash contains lots of small amounts of coordinating colors.
The Scrappy Stripe Pattern Details
- Designer: Mona Kay
- Craft: Knitting
- Category: Pullover / sweater
- Pattern availability: Free download
- Yarn weight: DK
- Suggested yarn: Schachenmayr Bravo Originals
- Yardage: 1,137–1,312 yards (1,040–1,200 m)
- Needles: 3 mm (US 2½), 3.5 mm (US 4) and 4 mm (US 6)
- Gauge: 18 stitches and 25 rows = 4 inches
- Construction: Bottom-up raglan, seamless and worked in the round
- Size: One size in the original pattern
- Language: English
A Colorful Scrap-Yarn Sweater
The idea behind The Scrappy Stripe is simple: instead of letting small amounts of DK yarn accumulate in your stash, combine them into colorful stripes and turn them into a sweater.
The balloon sleeves are particularly well suited to this approach. Changing colors as you knit creates bold stripes, and every version can look completely different depending on the scraps you choose.
How The Scrappy Stripe Is Constructed
This is a bottom-up raglan sweater worked seamlessly in the round. The sleeves are knitted first, followed by the body.
The sleeves and body are then joined before the raglan decreases are worked toward the neckline. This construction avoids the need to sew together separate sweater pieces at the end.
Yarn and Needles
The pattern is designed for DK-weight yarn. The suggested yarn is Schachenmayr Bravo Originals, although the whole idea of the project is to make good use of compatible DK leftovers from your stash.
The pattern lists approximately 1,040–1,200 m (1,137–1,312 yards) and uses 3 mm, 3.5 mm and 4 mm knitting needles.
Make the Sweater Your Own
The designer encourages knitters to adapt The Scrappy Stripe rather than treating every detail as fixed. The sleeves can be made more or less balloon-shaped, the lengths can be adjusted, and the overall fit can be changed to suit your preference.
This flexibility is especially useful for a scrap-yarn project because the colors and quantities available in your stash will probably be different from those used for the original sweater.
Is The Scrappy Stripe Beginner Friendly?
Mona Kay describes herself as a novice when she wrote the pattern and presents it as a record of the process she used to make her sweater. This is worth knowing before you begin: it is less rigid than a highly technical, professionally graded sweater pattern.
Knitters who already understand basic sweater construction, knitting in the round and simple increases and decreases are likely to find that flexibility particularly enjoyable.
Get The Scrappy Stripe Free Knitting Pattern
The Scrappy Stripe by Mona Kay is currently available as a free pattern download from the designer's pattern store.
Get The Scrappy Stripe Free Pattern
Pattern availability was checked when this article was updated. Availability on external websites may change over time.