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If you’re the kind of Sim who’s feeding the chickens and milking the cow before the sun has even risen over Henford-on-Bagley, the Cottage Living jumper is for you!

A simple chunky weight knit with a split stepped hem, it’s a wonderful cosy layer with or without the floral embroidery. Style over a skirt and wellies for pottering around the kitchen garden, or
throw on over some jeans and boots for a swift one at the Gnome’s Arms while you await the Mayor’s judgement on your entry into the pie baking competition.

Or, if that all sounded like Simlish to you: it’s a very pretty jumper that’s easy to knit and makes a great base for experimenting with embroidery!

This garment is inspired by The Sims 4: Cottage Living. It is not affiliated with The Sims franchise, Electronic Arts, or Maxis in any way.

Materials

• approx. 692 yards (637 metres) to 1479 yards (1361 metres) chunky weight yarn
• 6mm needles (or size needed for gauge) suitable for working flat and in the round
• 1 stitch marker, for noting the beginning of the round when working sleeves
• 2 pins or locking stitch markers, for noting seam start and end points
• tapestry needle, to sew in ends and work seams
• your preferred blocking equipment

For the embroidery (note, all embroidery is done with 4-ply weight yarn):
• 10 yards / 9 metres Colour A
• 20 yards / 18 metres Colour B
• 20 yards / 18 metres Colour C
• Your preferred medium for transferring embroidery designs, 8” / 20cm square
• Embroidery hoop, 6” / 15cm diameter

Note: the embroidery included in this pattern is suitable for beginners. It is also optional.

Yarn Requirements

Your yarn requirement depends on your chosen body and sleeve sizes. As such it is presented in a table. Please download the free preview document for more information; it should be everything you need to work out which sizes will work for you, how much yarn you’ll need, and which needles to use.

You can download the preview document here:

Preview Document

Instructions are included to adjust the length of the body, the sleeves, or both. The pattern and preview document both tell you how this will affect your yarn requirement.

Sizing

Cottage Living is #SizeInclusive and #ShapeInclusive.

Cottage Living comes in 10 body sizes and 10 sleeve sizes. You can mix and match any body size with any sleeve size for a custom fit.

The finished size at the full chest ranges from 37.75-72” (94.5-180cm) and is intended to be worn with 2-10” (5-40cm) positive ease.

The finished size at the upper arm ranges from 12-30.5” (30-76cm) and is intended to be worn with 2-6” (5-15cm) positive ease.

For full sizing information, including the schematic and all measurements, please download the free Preview Document (link above).

Construction

Cottage Living is a drop shoulder garment worked top down. The back is knit first, then stitches are picked up to work each front shoulder, which are joined and then the rest of the front panel is worked in one piece. Finally, each sleeve is picked up and knit in the round.

You can watch a video explaining this construction method here:

Construction Video

Stitches

knit
purl
knit 2 together
left lifted increase
right lifted increase
slip slip knit
slip 1 purlwise with yarn in front

Other Techniques

knitting flat
knitting in the round
casting on (backwards loop)
binding off (standard)
picking up stitches
embroidery (optional)

Sample Details

Sample A - Natural
Yarn: Valley Yarns Superwash Bulky, white
Size: 6G
Yardage: 1105y / 1017m
Model: Victoria
Chest Ease: 2.75” / 7cm
Bicep Ease: 2” / 5cm

Note: Sample A is also shown on Hawkins, the tailor’s dummy, with 13.75” / 34.5cm positive ease. This is more than the pattern recommends but garnered many compliments, and so is included for reference.

You can view more details of the samples and fit models used for Cottage Living in the Sample and Fit Model Galleries.

Sample Gallery

Fit Models

Accessibility

Cottage Living includes two versions of the pattern: the main version, and a second version designed for low vision and screen reader users.

Both versions of the pattern are colour blind friendly.

The accessible version of the pattern has:

• 24 point sans-serif font (Arial) throughout
• Fully saturated black text on white background
• Single column layout
• Left-aligned text
• No italics
• No header or footer – just page numbers (bottom left)
• Consistent use of heading tags for easy navigation
• Internal links to aid navigation
• All instructions written out in text without reliance on diagrams or charts
• All words written out in full (i.e. no abbreviations)
• No bulleted lists
• No tables
• Tested with screen readers

You can read full details here: Accessible Patterns