As someone who makes clothing, I really value brands that make high-quality pieces that can remain in your closet for a decade or more. When Yellow Jacket opened, I was thrilled to finally have a clothing store in Old Town to send my guy friends to. And of course, for fibre space, this means new possibilities for pairing heirloom-quality hand knits with the high-quality clothing pieces that can be found at Yellow Jacket.

The Yellow Jacket team and I put together four looks for Valentine’s Day date night, each one pairing hand knits that you can make with polished pieces from Yellow Jacket. For this collaboration, my partner was our victim, I mean our model. His fit is usually more casual, featuring street wear brands like Supreme and a heavy emphasis on sneakers. 

Finding modern knit patterns for men is an ongoing struggle in our industry. There are far fewer published patterns for men’s garments (a quick search on Ravelry.com shows nearly 88,000 patterns for women’s sweaters versus 15,000 for men). The style of these men’s designs tends to be boxy or fisherman’s style sweaters—classic hand knits that don’t always fit into the wardrobe of a young modern man. These four looks incorporate some contemporary pieces and even some colorful pieces that aren’t traditionally labeled as “mens” patterns. The finished looks are polished, stylish, and incredible!

The knits featured in these styles use two of our favorite yarn brands: Woolfolk and Blue Sky Fibers. Woolfolk sources their merino from the Ovis 21 flock of sheep in Patagonia. This flock produces an incredibly fine lustrous merino that has the feel of cashmere. Blue Sky Fibers is a woman owned company that started as a small pet project (literally) of alpacas in the owner’s backyard. The project grew into a full yarn company and has since expanded to wool, cotton and more.

Tips for knitting for men:

1. Confirm their color choice and don’t be surprised when it is black and only black!

2. Measure their chest size yourself to confirm that you are knitting the right size.

3. Prepare a sizable gauge swatch. You want to know how the fabric will change once it is washed/blocked and confirm that your gauge matches the pattern before proceeding. Always swatch!

4. Have them provide a sweater or sweatshirt that fits the way they want the sweater to fit and use this as a reference. Or incorporate positive ease, as most men wear garments sized up from their actual chest size. 

5. Have them try it on as you go, if possible.

6. And then last but not least…keep the “sweater curse” in mind.