r/knittingpatterns • u/Usual_Application_83 • 5d ago

Straight needles

Does anyone have any patterns (free or cheap) for a knitted jumper using straight needles?
I’m not a beginner, just massively prefer straight needles but every pattern I find that I like on ravelry is using circular needles for adult women’s jumpers.
Kind of going crazy trying to find one rn and all the ones for straight needles are for beginners rn!

I would prefer cardigans with buttons, trying to start my autumn/ winter wardrobe and am from the UK so something warm would be good and I’m using Aran yarn.

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u/kiddish 5d ago

I don’t have one off the top of my head, but add the filters “knit flat” and I’d also recommend “seamed” when you are searching on ravelry! Knit flat means you can do it on straight needles, and if it’s seamed, then the panels won’t be so big they won’t fit on straight needles.

Most of the cable knit sweaters I’ve made have been knit flat & seamed. In a way I prefer that. I’m knitting my first ever cable knit CARDIGAN right now and it’s the first time it’s been seamless. Part of me is like… whyyyy? Benefit to seamless is being able to knit in the round. You aren’t doing that with a cardigan anyway…

Sorry for the tangent haha!

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u/kiddish 5d ago

Here is a search with those filters; might want to add what needle size(s) you have for further narrowing down:

https://ravel.me/2f1kjv

(Edited: missed your comment about preferring cardigans, my original search had pullovers selected!)

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u/kiddish 5d ago

Just to add a little more: you can also select more attributes as I’m noticing a lot of the cardigans in this search have tons of texture. You can also select free only patterns, which I didn’t do in the search above. Filters on Ravelry are truly incredible and I think the absolute best feature of that website.

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u/BettyPages 5d ago

Just a caution, a lot of patterns have knit flat and seamed in their tags because a portion of the garment was knit that way, but they often still have circular knitting for sleeves and main body. Just something to keep in mind when searching.

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u/kiddish 5d ago

Good point! Good to investigate, which is a lot easier to do with free patterns.

That said, converting sleeves from in the round to flat and seamed is really not that hard for a non-beginners. I’ve done it before bc I sometimes prefer to knit sleeves 2-at-a-time, which is easier for me when they’re knit flat. :)

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u/CrabbyOlLyberrian 5d ago

Came here to say this. Search “knit flat.” DROPS patterns are usually knit flat, btw (they have their own website).

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u/BettyPages 5d ago edited 5d ago

Mandy Julie on Ravelry does patterns exclusively for straight needles, I believe.

Kim Hargreaves, Alice Starmore, and Louisa Harding also do a lot of patterns for straight needles, but many of their patterns are hard to find outside of published books. Other than that, vintage patterns from the 50s and before are usually knit flat unless the design specifically requires knitting itr, so you could try some of those.

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u/cameliap 5d ago

You can convert instructions for knitting in the round to knitting flat. Just add a stitch per side for the seaming. (Even if you don't add anything it will mostly turn out ok. Sans motives that need to match, for these you have to really do it, but it's still minimal.)

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u/kiddish 5d ago

This!! I wouldn’t recommend that for a beginner but since OP is not a beginner, I feel like this is really not a difficult mod!

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u/displacergeese 5d ago

I just did the Geiger cardigan and it’s all straight needles, and the cables on it are a lot of fun. It calls for circular needles for the button band but that’s just because of the length of the band—the circular needles are effectively very long straight needles.

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u/displacergeese 5d ago

Oh I missed the free/cheap bit—it’s not super expensive but not cheap either, and it is a complicated but very well written pattern with many sizes.

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u/Woofmom2023 5d ago edited 5d ago

Any pattern that's written flat and bottom up can be knit on straight needles. As I recall those are both filter options on Ravelry. I got 2398 patterns not filtering by cost or fiber.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/search#craft=knitting&weight=aran&photo=yes&pc=cardigan&pa=bottom-up%2Bseamed%2Bworked-flat&language=en&sort=best&view=captioned_thumbs

One of my favorite cardigan patterns is Ann Norling #13 and her pullover #9. It's out of print but still available.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/9-adult-basic-pullover

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/9-adult-basic-pullover

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u/MaxIamtheBest 5d ago

Do you have a library? Mine has knitting books, a number are older--before circular needles were common.

(like when I started knitting eons ago)

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u/LookNorth64 5d ago

Etsy has lots of downloadable PDFs of vintage knitting patterns that use two needles. I prefer straight needles too!

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u/willoww3 5d ago

Let’s not use Etsy

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u/zorbina 5d ago

It's tough if you don't want to use circulahttps://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/leliar needles at all (many use them for the button bands or neck bands, even if they don't use them for the body sections). Older patterns that are knit in pieces bottom-up are probably your best bet, but most of those aren't going to be free since they were published in pamphlets or books. I found a few that call for aran-weight yarn, but they're pretty basic ones:

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/133-13-fudge

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pearl-12

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lelia

If you want to look at some patterns that are written for worsted weight yarn, they might still work for you as long as you account for any difference in gauge. Here's a basic search where I've added criteria to look for "straight" in the pattern notes, hoping to find ones that call for straight needles, but some still call for circulars.

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u/Late-Command3491 5d ago

What you want is a pattern knit flat, in pieces to sew together at the end. You can search Ravelry for that under Attributes : Construction.