Hohde

Feels like it was ages ago when I started designing a sweater for the Christmas edition of Taito magazine. And it is - I cast on a year ago in December! But this week, finally, the magazine is being delivered to subscribers and I get to share this design with you all.

What: Hohde / Own pattern

How: Circular needles 3.0 and 3.5 mm

From: Aara Koto, 366 g

It's always fun to write patterns for magazines, especially when they offer a theme or a mood board to give you inspiration. The theme for the Christmas magazine was 'together' and I immediately started thinking about sweater that would have a certain ease to it. Something that is really comfortable to wear that you don't have to think about. But also something stylish enough to worn on Christmas.

I had decided on a relaxed pullover and wanted to use Finnish yarn - preferably not only dyed here in Finland but also using Finnish wool for the yarn base. My wish was easily granted as I realised the Aara Yarn (sport weight, 100% Finnish wool) yarn had the exact colors as the magazine mood board. Also, I'm pretty sure you've seen how into stranded knitting I've been lately so it was a no brainer that this one would be a colorwork yoke sweater.

So there you have it: Hohde is a stylish pullover with a stunning colorwork yoke. The sweater is worked top down and it has long sleeves. The body of the sweater has a slight A-line shape, making it super comfortable to wear. There's a little piece of the yoke colorwork repeated just before the hem ribbing.

The yoke design is an abstract fan pattern but it reminds me of a fantastical peacock with gold dust in its tail feathers. The sweater uses three colors and there are couple rounds using all three at the bottom of the yoke but I promise you they're well worth the effort.

One of my favorite details in this design is the folded ribbing at the neckline. It gives such a neat finishing touch. The neckline, hem and cuffs are all worked in twisted ribbing.

I love to photograph knits in places where the background has the same color scheme as the knit but this time we really hit the jackpot with this tunnel. The graffiti not only mirrors all the colors in the sweater but also my jeans top - and even in the same order! It's almost as if someone had painted the concrete with my sweater in mind.

Hohde sweater is featured in the Christmas edition of TAITO magazine in Finnish but the pattern will be available as an individual download (and in English) in spring 2021.

Some of the photos are courtesy of the talented producer, Sonja, from TAITO magazine.