Foliage

And next up, we have the second men's sweater from the book, Foliage pullover.

What: Foliage / Own pattern

How: Circular needle 3.5 mm

From: The Fibre Co. Cumbria Fingering, 412 g

Colorwork yokes have dominated the knitting world for the past couple years but most of the designs are for women. I wanted offer one for men as well.

The sweater has a lovely round yoke with falling leaves and berries. There's also a row of leaves on the cuff. The neckline and cuffs are worked in corrugated ribbing. Working ribbing in stranded knitting means it won't stretch but who cares if it looks this good, right?

This was my first ever attempt designing for men. At first, I thought it would be easy, all I'd need would be a men's measurements table.

It turned out not to be quite so simple. First, there wasn't a single measuments table with all the info I need for grading and so I ended up combining the Craft Yarn Council's standards and a Finnish measurements table meant for tailoring.

Next, I quickly found out at the early stages of test knitting that men's sweaters need very different amounts of ease when compared to women's sweaters. Live and learn. Designing this sweater turned out to be quite a learning experience - a truly valuable one going forward.

All these problems have of course been fixed in the final pattern and the sweater should have enough room for manly biceps and wrists. I had never realized how roomy the cuffs on men's sweaters are. I even had to go do a bit of spying in Hubby's wardrope and I was amazed to see not a single one close-fitting cuff.

This design ended up being a lot more work than I initially thought as I needed to learn about the different ease for men but the pullover turned out great. And the biggest compliment I could ever get is that my non-sweater-wearing-Hubby has said that he might actually use this one once we get it back from the trunk show.

You can find all the info on the design below. Some of the photos were taken by Laine for the book and some we snapped ourselves during the lock-down last spring which I think you can easily deduct by the hair and beard length.

Size

XXS-XS-S-M1 [M2-L1-L2-XL] 2XL-3XL-4XL-5XL

This sweater is meant to be worn with positive ease. Choose a size with approx. 3’’ / 8 cm positive ease at bust circumference.

Finished measurements

Chest, waist and hip circumference: 37.5-40.25-41.5-43.75 [45.5-48-49.5-52.25] 55.75-59.75-63.25-67.5’’ / 94-101-103.5-109.5 [114-120-123.5-130.5] 139-149.5-158.5-168.5 cm

Yarn

The Fibre Co. Cumbria Fingering (60% merino, 30% masham, 10% mohair, 300 m / 100 g), or other fingering weight yarn. Shown in colors Barrow (MC) and Catbells (CC).

4-4-4-4 [5-5-5-5] 6-6-6-7 skeins of MC and 1-1-1-1 [1-1-1-1] 1-2-2-2 skeins of CC.

Yardage

MC: 1070-1095-1205-1270 [1335-1420-1500-1565] 1695-1825-1925-2055 yrds / 980-1000-1100-1160 [1220-1300-1370-1430] 1550-1670-1760-1880 m,

CC: 250-250-260-260 [280-280-295-305] 325-325-328-328 yrds / 190-200-235-235 [245-245-260-280] 300-330-335-350 m.

Needles

US 4 (3.5 mm) - 40’’ / 100 cm long circular needles and dpns if you prefer to work the sleeves with them. Adjust needle size if necessary to obtain the right gauge.

Gauge

23 sts x 29 rnds = 4x4’’ / 10x10 cm in stockinette stitch and color work, worked in the round (after blocking).

Other

4 stitch markers, tapestry needle.