Fruity Knitting and the Cocoknits Method .

Fruity Knitting and Cocoknits

Do you watch podcasts or vlogs on YouTube?

Julie explaining the Cocoknits Method in episode 107 of Fruity Knitting.

One of my favourite podcasts to watch is Fruity Knitting. I love it so much that I am one of their Patreon supporters. Andrew and Andrea have managed to produce such high quality and interesting content that there is always something new to explore and feel inspired by in each episode. Episode 107 included an interview with Julie Weisenberger who has developed what she calls the Cocoknits Method of sweater knitting. I really enjoyed listening to Julie talk about her top down construction method and her designs. As she showed each one I was excited to feel that I had found a designer who was designing clothes that I would happily wear every day.

Two years ago I pledged not to buy any more new clothes except underwear (more about that another day). I had envisaged buying the few clothes that I need in the charity (thrift) shops. Anyone in the UK will know that these have all been closed for a year now due to Covid lockdowns. Donations have to be quarantined for a couple of days and many of the volunteers running the shops fall into the ‘vulnerable’ category for corona virus. So the long and the short of it is that the two sweat shirts that I wear almost everyday are getting very raggy, even beyond repair and definitely need to be replaced.

Getting Started with the Cocoknits method

Enter Julie Weisenbergers’s book Cocoknits Sweater Workshop which I bought from A Yarn Story who is the UK supplier for all things Cocoknits. I can’t tell you how exciting it is to be knitting my first Cocoknits jumper!

To begin with I chose my pattern which is Emma version A. This pattern looks simple and most importantly, easy to wear. Then I decided to use a chunky aran weight British wool yarn that I got from Wingham Wool Works. This yarn is not particularly soft but will, however, be hard wearing which is important as I imagine wearing this jumper often. With that in mind I dyed the yarn, creamy white is not a practical colour for an everyday jumper in this household. I even knitted a swatch to check my gauge which is not something I do often. Finally, I checked my measurements against the schematic and filled in the worksheet.

Now that I have cast on, I think this jumper could knit up really quickly. It will still take me a while because I like to knit while I watch stuff, usually YouTube, detective procedurals or period drama but I have decided to be screen free on week days throughout Lent in an attempt to get back to reading actual books. The exception to this are the Cocoknits tutorials which I took a look at to check a couple of the techniques that I was unfamiliar with.

The genius of Cocoknit coloured stitch markers!

Have You Knitted a Cocoknits Method Garment?

I am really interested to see how this jumper will turn out. The beauty of the Cocoknits method is that you can knit to your body shape. You can even knit each part of the garment in a different size if you need to. If you have narrow shoulders you can knit the smaller size for the top but if you have a larger bust you can knit a larger size for the chest area etc. It seems really flexible and using the worksheet and coloured stitch markers makes the actual knitting pretty much plain sailing. I’d love to hear from you if you have tried knitting with the Cocoknits method, how did you get on? Which pattern did you choose? Which yarn? All that good stuff.