A Bláklukka for ages 8-10

I loved the picture of this jumper so much and kept coming back and back to it, imagining how beautiful my nieces would look in it and how perfect it was for their sunny personalities and love of pretty colours. But unfortunately the sizes only went up to 6 years old and my nieces are nearly 8 and 10. Eventually I could no longer resist and used the measurements and stitch counts of the Afmæli(which I know is an excellent pattern) and the yoke pattern of Bláklukka to create exactly what I wanted.

My gauge is somewhat loose so I used 4mm needles for the whole garment (including the moss stitch rib - another feature I used from the Bláklukka). That way I got the perfect 18 stitches to 10cm.

Here are my figures for age 8-10 (with no shaping in the body).

Body stitches 144
Length of body to underarm 34cm

Sleeves cast on: 36 stitches

4 rows of moss stitch, then 7 rows of stocking stitch, then Inc every 10th round 7 times. Continue in plain st st until the sleeve is 38cm in length (15 more rows in my case). 50 stitches at the top of sleeve. 9 stitches are placed underarm on a holder for each sleeve.

After joining the body and sleeves in the round (9 stitches underarm) I decreased 4 stitches evenly (before and after each sleeve). That brought my total from 208 to 204 which was the figure for the age 5-6 yrs Bláklukka yoke, so I could proceed exactly the same as the Bláklukka from then on apart from adding 3 rows of white between and at the edge of the garlands.

My resulting measurements are exactly the sizing for the age 8-10 years Afmæli but with the pretty Bláklukka details and yoke.

Chest 80cm all round
Body from underarm 34cm
Sleeves 38cm to the underarm

The only other change I made was to make a ‘yarn over k2tog’ buttonhole in the neckband.

The yarn is gorgeous, a subtly varied and muted purple but with the brightness of spring-time. It reminds me of the beautiful Waldorf colours my niece draws her pictures in.

My next project is to make another for Bryony’s older sister in the size 10-12 years in time for their Christmas :)