In August 2024 my elder daughter and I co-designed a Goth Christmas sweater for her. She chose many of the elements she wanted me to include, found possible images to adapt (some from other knitwear, some from cross stitch designs) and in some cases drew what she wanted for me to chart up. I used the basic knitting pattern of a vintage sweater my mother had worn in the 1960s, which I still own. I had found the pattern online after sharing a photo of my mother's sweater in knitwear groups. It is called Norwegian Sportswear by P&B.
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| Vintage knitting pattern Norwegian Sportswear by P&B |
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| My mother wearing the sweater my godmother's mum knitted for her (with me, my sister and my grandfather, in 1978) |
I charted up the whole sweater using an Excel spreadsheet with tiny grid squares coloured with the different elements. For the raglan join, my daughter wanted a spider web (inspired by a vintage knit pattern she found online) and bats, so I carefully charted all the spiderweb lines to match up, and ensured the actual seams were not on the vertical white lines of the web.
I started knitting the front in August 2024 and completed the front and back plus the first part of a sleeve. By mid December it was clear I would not have the sweater finished in time for that Christmas and was busy with many other pre-Christmas activities so didn't have enough time to devote to it.
The most tedious elements to knit were the ghosts and candlesticks, I didn't mind the skellies and haunted reindeer (my names for those elements). Knitting with predominantly black yarn was not my favourite as counting rows is harder with black yarn, I was glad that during 2025 I bought a magnifier lamp for cross stitching a stole for my niece's wedding in South Africa, as this helped with knitting the sleeves from October 2025 when I resumed this project. I finished it in the early hours of Christmas morning so my daughter was able to wear it on Christmas day 2025, much to her delight.
The yarn used is Sirdar Country Classic 50g 4ply balls in black, grey, white and red. It is 50% wool, 50% acrylic blend and I would say is bordering on not the best choice for stranded knitting because there isn't enough wool to make the yarn 'stick' better, so in some places despite my best efforts, the short floats show through. To keep the floats tidy and reduce the chance of them catching when putting on the sweater, I mostly stranded every 2 stitches, which meant frequent untwisting of the balls of yarn until I invested in a yarn holding gadget which helped manage the untwisting of colours somewhat. It was a trade off using this blend to quell concerns about wearing wool next to sensitive skin (my daughter would never wear a pure wool sweater such as my Guernsey). This yarn was not bad for knitting generally, but not so good for stranded knitting in my opinion (a 60% wool, 40% acrylic blend might have been stickier).
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| back of a sleeve while in progress, showing the floats |
We washed the sweater a few days after Christmas on a 15 minute 20 degrees C cycle as I was concerned about colour running and pounding the sweater too much, in the event this softened it a bit without colour running which was a relief.
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| The front of the sweater with the collar rolled down |
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| closer view of the front with the collar up |
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| The back of the sweater with the collar up |
My daughter is delighted with the Goth Christmas sweater. I think it will get worn from Halloween onwards every winter! She is proud of it being one of a kind, so although she suggested I could sell the pattern via Ravelry, she is also revelling in admiring comments from friends who appreciate its uniqueness.
I might reuse one or two elements (most likely the skellies, which were from a cross stitch pattern, and haunted reindeer, which my daughter drew) as single motifs for Sasha doll knitwear. I will not knit another ghost! I have refused to take commissions and knit the whole combination again as it was very time consuming to make.
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