Pace Yourself: Spin and Knit a Tiny Sweater

In Spin Off Spring 2021, frequent contributor Madeline Keller-King wrote about grappling with a health diagnosis that forced her to restructure her entire life. She subsequently learned about the act of pacing—a reminder to take things slowly and mindfully in order to keep herself from overexertion.

In Madeline’s words, “Sometimes we are all fragile in our own way, and pacing can be a helpful practice for all of us. Even our making is impacted by stress, and yet it’s in such times that we need our making the most. However, if you’re anything like me, it is in times of difficulty that seeing a project through to the end can feel the most daunting. Life’s complications can make the creative process feel overwhelming, but there is something particularly satisfying about a freshly finished project.”

Madeline’s palm-sized sweater doesn’t take much fiber, yarn, or time.

You may be struggling with burnout, illness, or stress this time of year, and lacking the energy or focus to tackle a large project. Madeline developed her Pacing Pullovers project with that thought in mind, designed to be completed in manageable increments. The Spin Off team wanted to share both Madeline's wise advice and sweet pattern with our community, so we have added a free PDF version to our library. Find the link below.

Madeline’s Spinning Notes

Madeline selected a bright and cheerful braid of Merino top from Three Waters Farm and broke up the braid for spinning in two ways.

"First, I split half of the fiber lengthwise into about 16 strips, to keep the color repeats for a self-striping yarn. Next, I pulled apart the other half into chunks by color and spun it into solid-colored yarns for colorwork. In each case, I took the time to predraft the fiber, which gave me a chance to get familiar with the wool and its staple length and made the spinning process less work for my hands. And for my solid colors, predrafting made it easier for me to remove any of the staple lengths with two different colors on them and thus avoid muddying the color of my finished yarn."

Colorful hand-dyed fiber from Three Waters Farm makes beginning the spinning for the miniature sweaters easy—no fiber processing!

Madeline then spun a 3-ply yarn in a laceweight to light fingering weight, worsted-style, short-forward draft on her Electric Eel Wheel Nano. Instead of spinning all of her singles at once, she chain-plied after each color, which resulted in several fingering-weight mini skeins.

Knitting Notes

Madeline’s mini sweater is worked in the round from the top down. The pattern is written for two colors (main color [MC] and contrasting color [CC]), but one color may be used throughout.

Madeline says she started making these miniature sweaters using leftover bits of sock yarn, but found she couldn’t stop at just one!

Use the needles that you prefer for working a small circumference in the round: double-pointed, two circulars, or one long circular for Magic Loop. Safety pins or waste yarn work well as stitch holders for this project.

We’ve added the pattern for Madeline’s Pacing Pullovers to the Spin Off Library. Our hope is that you will make time to spin and knit, even during stressful or difficult times.

Get the pattern for the Pacing Pullovers in the Spin Off Library.

Send us a photo of your Pacing Pullover and we just may include it in an online gallery on the Spin Off website. Send a high-resolution photo of your finished piece along with your name and permission to publish your photo via our email address by February 10, 2025. Be sure to include an object in the photo for scale!