I could only find aran weight wool in the right colour for my grandsons school jumper. I cannot find a plain pattern (no cable) I have dk and chunky patterns. Leaving the cable out in cable patterns doesn’t work. Any suggestions.
You have a few options. You could look on Ravelry for a suitable plain Aran weight sweater.
Here is an example. It is free but the downside of that is that the drops patterns are not edited and are not always very clear!
You can also look on Etsy which seems to have a lot of vintage patterns.
A local yarn shop may have pattern leaflets which often include this style of sweater.
Alternatively, you can use the patterns that you have. It can be hard to find plain knit aran weight sweaters. You could knit a swatch with your yarn and compare the gauge with that in your DK pattern . Knitting a smaller size might work if your Swatch is larger than that specified for your pattern.
You also say that leaving the cables out of your aran pattern doesn’t work. Is this due to the size? Cables tend to pull the knitting in, so again, you may need to work a smaller size without cables. You need to work a swatch and work out how many stitches you’d need to get the desired chest measurement, and choose the size with the relevant stitch count at the chest.
It all depends on how confident you are to fiddle around!!
A further consideration is the yarn you’ve chosen. Some aran weight yarns are lighter than others depending on how they are spun. A lighter yarn might knit to a DK gauge and you could get away with just using your DK pattern but a heavier yarn may look too stiff at this gauge.
I hope these thoughts help!
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Mel61 has some very nice alternatives. Here’s few more patterns. What age is grandson?
You didn’t say what style you need. I’m in the UK and here it’s almost certain a crew neck would not be permitted for uniform, v neck only here.
I’ve faved this myself as it’s got a good range of sizes and my son is hard to to find patterns for (tween almost teen)
And a drop shoulder (which used to be permitted here but not sure now) in a good size range
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/basic-drop-sleeve-v-neck-pullover-7435
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Your local library may have Ann Budd’s book of basic designs in many gauges:
Edited to add: I believe this book has crewneck and v-neck options for each style, but perhaps someone else can confirm this.
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Thank you. Looks a useful book. I will investigate
Thank you so much for all the replies. It was a v neck raglan style I needed. I got one of the ones suggested from Ravelry. Started it straight away finished the back and one sleeve. perfect thank you.
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Hey that’s swift knitting!
When I was in primary school the kids with the hand knitted sweaters were considered the luckiest and somehow more loved than those with the shop bought sweater. The love and effort that went into the knitting was highly valued!
I’m sure it will be lovely for your grandson. Hope we get to see a pic of the finished garment.