Höyhen

If my inspiration at the moment is flying somewhere in the cable skies of next winter, last autumn I was still all about stranded knitting. When designing for a magazine, the path from an idea to the printed magazine is a long one so this sweater that was just published in the Finnish craft magazine, Taito, was on my needles last autumn.

What: Höyhen / Own pattern

How: Circular needle 3.5 mm

From: Kettu Yarns Highland Wool + Silk Mohair, 88 + 50 g

It's always fun to do designs for magazines as they usually offer a nice mood board for inspiration. The theme for this issue of Taito was birds. I was very much in the stranded knitting zone and immediately came up with this idea of a round yoke covered in feathers. (Höyhen means feather in Finnish.)

The pullover is worked with wool but it's a cropped design with these teeny tiny cuffs for sleeves so it's a surprisingly light-weight sweater - perfect layering piece over a summer dress. 

In addition to the feather pattern on the yoke, the sweater has corrugated ribbing on the neckline, cuffs and hem, and a simple lice pattern on the body. This design uses short rows to shape the back of the neck and bust dart so it's easiest to duplicate stitch the lice pattern over those rows. Of course, you could always work the body in just the main color - which is what some of my test knitters did.

One especially fun aspect of this design were the yarns I chose. I used a lovely fingering weight Kettu Yarns Highland wool for the main color but then had a lace weight mohair silk for the contrast. That one, I held double to keep the same gauge. The contrast color mohair silk gives the design a beautiful fluffy surface.

At the moment, the pattern is available in the Finnish craft magazine, Taito. Once the rights revert back to me in autumn, I'll offer the pattern also in English over on Ravelry, PayHip and Lovecrafts. The last three photos are courtesy of Taito magazine.