Adult designs, Independent Designs - January 21, 2015

Bright Peak Pullover

Now availabe for purchase, the Bright Peak pullover in Schachenmayer original Boston. Kinda obsessed with the boat neck folks, and the square body with wide graphic stripes and an offest cable. This simple pullover is quick, and really at this point in the winter isn't that what we need? When all the best sweater intentions planned in October with the first nip of fall, shunted to the side after a barrage of Christmas knitting are now revisited in the depths of January. Do you have time for a whole sweater? You might, but you would have more time for a bulky pullover, with simple shaping and patterning. It would be done sooner, and it is a fun knit... I mean really fun..

This was originally designed for the Schachemayer My Mountain contest, a contest intended for designs featuring the Boston Original yarn. This yarn is a nice combination of acrylic and wool, just enough of both to have an easy care yarn that is still nice to work with. Acrylic gets a bad rap sometimes, from me as well, for being tough to knit and not really worth the agony for the finished project.

However this super soft lightly spun yarn is an exception, fairly easy to work with it has a lofty feel that makes a bulky pullover lighter and more versatile. And of course it features those wild new neon colors that really aren't all that new... but if you are old enough to have worn them before ...congratulations! We are buddies and we can both wear them again proudly! This design was inspired by the bulky pullovers and neon shades from the eighties, reimagined and modernized with sleeker armhole shaping and punchy graphic stripes. Pairing the neon with a basic charcoal grey reduces the intensity of the yellow and matures the overall design.

This pattern uses one needle size, wide bands of 2x2 ribbing and no waist shaping or neck shaping. The sleeves are a modified drop which means that you do bind off some stitches at the underarm but the armholes are rectangles without complicated shaping. Of course with a sweater knit flat in pieces there is some seaming: the shoulders are joined with 3 needle bind off, the sleeves are picked up and knit from the armhole down, the bottom sleeve and side seams are joined using mattress stitch. But really a little seaming in bulky weight is worth it for such a cute wardrobe addition!