I had a dream...

I have had this post as a draft for ages because the life of a preschool teacher can never be predicted. I was in the doldrums for a long time, but I'm back! Hopefully that means more blog posts...

Anyway

Back in late January (just after my birthday) a friend of mine from Ireland came back to the US. She'd been stuck at home because of COVID, so she only just got back from Christmas. As a birthday/Christmas gift she gave me some beautiful Irish wool in dark speckled green and a grey-white. The quality is amazing and I absolutely LOVED working with it.

Well, a few days after she gave me the yarn I had a dream...a song to sing...No. No going off with Abba lyrics. Okay, so I had a dream of the sweater I would make with it. There were a few variations in the dream, boat neck, long sleeves, no sleeves, mock turtleneck...but there was a deep green ribbing and a thick white, thin green stripe on each one. I thought about the weather here and decided to go with a sleeveless mock turtleneck pullover, because if I ever had the inclination I could wear it to work.

It came out almost EXACTLY as I dreamed. I finished it in about 8 days. I would say this pattern is intermediate, as it requires a unique ribbing, edging for the arm holes, a 3 needle bind off, and picking up stitches. All are pretty easy once you know how, though.

This is the pattern:

600-700 yards of yarn

1 pair 3.5mm needles, 1 pair 4.5mm needles (plus 1 needle for the bind off, see note below), one pair 3.5mm 16in circular needles

Stitch holder

Yarn needle

Stitch markers, optional

CO 70 on 3.5mm needles.

Row 1: K3P2 for the whole row.

Row 2: K2P3 for the whole row.

Repeat these two rib rows for 5in. 

Switch to 4.5mm needles and do two stockinette rows (k1 row p1 row)

Join white and work in 4 rows in stockinette stitch. Add one stitch each end.

Pick up green again and work 2 rows in stocking stitch.

Repeat these stripes increasing on the first white row of each section 2 more times until you have 76 stitches. 

Work even until 12in, or until desired length to underarms

For arm holes:

Begin to garter the outer 5st in white, slipping the last each row.

Continue the green/white stripes on the inner 66st. using white for the gartered edge.

Work for 5in (or longer depending on how deep you want the arm holes) in this way then start neckline.

For neckline (front): Continue with the white edge as above and K24 bind off 28 K24.

Work in stripe pattern decreasing every other row (the knit row) at neckline until 20st.

Place shoulder stitches on holder for 3 needle bind off

For the back, repeat exactly as the front until the neckline, as written below 

For neckline (back): Work 4 more rows, then K22 bind off 32 K24 and then decrease to 20.

Finishing:

Using 3 needle bind off, join the shoulders

Pick up 88 stitches around the neckline using circular needle. Join yarn and work in K2P2 ribbing for 1.5in. Bind off

Sew up the sides to the armholes making sure to match the stripes

 

That's all!