Julie and the Cocoknits team are hopping into The Everlasting KAL our annual knit-a-long! For 2025 we're knitting a brand new pattern: Beatriz. You can follow along with Julie as she works on her Beatriz over the course of eight weeks. Between January 31 and March 28, we'll be posting updates and behind-the-scenes glimpses of her progress, with a few tips and tricks along the way.
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Prep Week
During a Terroir Retreat in Portugal, Julie fell in love with Rosa Pomar Beiroa. Having already knit two Beatriz cardigans with Beiroa (a chocolate brown and sage green), she couldn’t resist a third in the oatmeally 401 Undyed White color. She assembled all her tools and filled up her Project Wallet. Since she’d already swatched and knit Beatriz with this yarn before, she knew that she would reach gauge on US 8 (5 mm) needles and would love the fit of a size 4.
TIP: Can’t decide on a size? Sweater fit is a very personal thing, so “recommended ease” in patterns isn’t always helpful. We recommend measuring things from your closet that you already love to wear! Watch our tutorial for tips: How to Measure Garments to Get Preferred Pattern Size. You can see how Julie determined the size for her Beatriz here.
Resources & Tutorials:
Sections I-III
Since Julie’s personal knitting tension often results in “rowing out” (her WS purl rows are looser than her RS knit rows), she knits flat stockinette with two different size needles: US 8/5 mm for the knit rows, and US 7/4.5 mm for the purl rows. In Section I, she worked the Cable Increases as instructed in the pattern, and knit Sections II & III without any modifications. Now her color-coordinated stitch markers are in place, and she’s ready for the Worksheet!
TIP: Want to knit Cable Increases without a cable needle? Since these little shoulder cables are small (2x2 twists), it’s easy to work them without a cable needle by pre-twisting the four stitches. You can see this demonstrated here, as well as in our tutorial How to Knit a Cable Increase (around 2:18). You can also see how this is done for standard cables (without increases) here.
Resources & Tutorials:
Comments
Hi Kim, Yes, Beatriz is a Cocoknits Method pattern, knit from the top down. For more information about the Cocoknits Method, before Beatriz is released, check out the “Everlasting KAL” page, as well as “Cocoknits Method” under the Learn drop-down menu. Hope you’ll join us as we knit along!
hi. Is this a top down knitting project? Thanks.
Thanks Sandra! The Beatriz Pattern gauge is 4 sts per 1" / 2.5 cm. We’ll add it to the page.
Hi Carla, Glad you will be joining us! The Rosa Pomar Beiroa yarn that Julie used in her sweaters is considered an aran weight yarn. The ball band lists it as 18-20 sts per 4" / 10 cm, but Julie liked the fabric she got knitting it at 16 sts per 4" / 10 cm. She often knits yarn more loosely than the ball band suggests. You will want to find the fabric you like for your Beatriz, and we suggest you try an aran weight yarn. Check out some of our Knit-a-Long resources and other tutorials for help. Once you find the fabric you like, you can adjust the pattern to work with your perfect gauge. We are happy to help—feel free to email us at knit@cocoknits.com with questions as well as to share your progress and/or questions on our social media and in our forum on Ravelry.
Love this! When it says “any yarn that gets gauge”, what gauge are we aiming for? Thanks!
I would love to try this one. I finished my Ruth relatively successfully but for my yarn choice. The information mentions Aran weight but the yarn mentioned indicates DK with a gauge of 18-20 over 4 but the description doesn’t actually mention gauge. Could you offer any information about this?
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