I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Gwen sweater is one of my favorite doll sweater patterns of all time. It’s cute, well-written, and just the right amount of interesting without being difficult. Plus, you can easily knit it up in a weekend. (So satisfying!) I just finished my fourth Gwen and it turns out adorable every time!
This time, I used up leftover Stroll from two different pairs of socks, and it was so satisfying to make a (tiny) dent in my sock yarn scrap bin. I cast on this project as part of a #SkyKAL on Bluesky (follow me!), where the simple instructions were to knit something blue. I was a little concerned about the contrast between the light and dark blues I picked, but they worked together better than I expected.
Why Gwen Is a Stash Buster’s Dream
If you’ve ever wondered what to do with those partial skeins of leftover sock yarn that you just can’t bear to toss, doll clothes are your answer. In particular, doll clothes that use multiple colors, because you can make even very small yardages stretch!
I still can’t believe how little yarn this sweater actually uses. I used less than half a 50g ball of the dark blue and only about 47 yards of the light blue from Knit Picks Stroll. (My exact yardage: 22g/102 yards of MC and 10g/47 yards of the CC; the pattern calls for 120 yards MC and 55 yards CC.)
If you want to start with new yarn for this project instead of scraps, Knit Picks sells a few fingering weight yarns in 50g balls, so you don’t have to pay for a standard 100g skein just for a tiny project. (I love Stroll, Comfy Fingering, and Palette). And if you want to go even smaller, the Stroll mini skein packs are a fun option!
Fair warning: you may end up playing yarn chicken with the main color if you go the mini skein route! Everyone knits a little differently, so your yardage wouldn’t match mine exactly. That said, I needed 22g of the MC, so I would have been in trouble. I guess my advice would be to be conservative with your yarn tails and maybe knit the first few rows of the turtleneck in CC because that’s not visible once it is folded over. If you are bold enough to tackle this with mini skeins, please let me know if it works out!
But, I digress… So, let’s imagine that you are not brave enough to use a mini skein… if you started with two full 50g balls Stroll or Pallette for this sweater, you’ll have enough leftover of the CC yarn to knit another doll sweater like Ella or Olive. You can check out my versions of those sweaters here here and here.
Bonus: You Get to Practice Color Theory!
One of the reasons I love knitting multi-colored doll sweaters like Gwen is that they are the perfect playground for trying out new color combos – way better than knitting up useless swatches!
I took a cool online course by Franklin Habit called A Practical Approach to Color for Knitters and he introduces the concept of creating a “box of chaos” where you keep all different colors of yarn (here, it’s my sock yarn leftovers) then you bust out a color wheel and come up with all sorts of cool combos and you learn how to test the contrast of the colors and all sorts of neat things. It’s honestly my favorite course I’ve ever taken on Craftsy – I highly recommend it!
Now, as usual, here are my project details:
yarn details
Knit Picks Stroll in Wonderland Heather and Blue Steel Heather
Fingering Weight
75% Fine Superwash Merino Wool, 25% Nylon
Machine wash gentle, tumble dry low or lay flat to dry
50 g/ 231 yd ball
project details
- pattern: “Gwen” by Steph Wiley (purchase on Ravelry or Etsy for $5.50)
- needles: US size 2 (2.75 mm), nickel-plated fixed circulars (worked in magic loop)
- gauge: I find it difficult to measure gauge in this stitch pattern, but my best attempt puts me at 30 stitches and 58 rows over 4”, which doesn’t match the pattern gauge, but the sweater still fits perfectly.
- yarn used: 102 yards (22 grams) of the MC (Blue Steel Heather) and 47 yards (10g) of the CC (Wonderland Heather)
- finished size: laid flat, about 6.6 inches across; and the patterned section is 5” tall; bottom ribbing is 0.5” and the turtleneck is 2” tall (unfolded)
- duration: Cast on Feb 2 and finished on March 8, but I really only worked on it for a couple of days in that time span.
notes
- My gauge was a little looser than the pattern gauge at 30 stitches over 4” vs. 36 stitches, but the sweater still fits my 2018 AG doll very nicely. I never worry too much about gauge when knitting doll clothes – it doesn’t usually matter a whole lot.
- The sweater is knitted from the bottom up and there’s a cool trick to separating for the arms. I usually use a double-ended stitch holder for this part, but this time I used some stitch saver cord and it was great too.
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