FO: Phyllo Yoked Pullover

I had to get my eyes dilated at the ophthalmologist on Friday, which left me looking freakishly stoned.



Part of me wanted to just sit in a dark room and wait for it to wear off, but I had much too much to do. So everything I saw that afternoon was blurred and accompanied by a bright glare, which made me start to think I was stoned.



Anyway. The gin and tonics probably didn't help.

I finished the Phyllo Yoked Pullover from Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature.



I love sweaters like this- you go on for almost forever in plain stockinette stitch, and then BAM there's a pretty and unique design element that pulls it all together. It's based on the Phyllotaxis Spiral found in plants- sunflowers, pinecones, daisy, asters and mums- they all have a spiral pattern that runs both clockwise and counterclockwise to form a lattice.



It's a fairly simple lace pattern with the decreases built in so the spiral is uninterrupted. When I get cooking on something like that, I can't put it down. It's addictive.





I didn't do any major modifications except for the sleeves. The way they were written, they were going to be hourglass shaped. Big belled cuffs that taper to the elbow. I'm a big fan of rolling up my sleeves (or at least having the option to) so I nixed the sleeve design and just did a plain sleeve with decreases every 10 rows until I hit the number I needed to get them to fit in with the yoke.



It's really just a lovely sweater. And the yarn...Rowan Calmer almost makes me feel silly for all the smack I've talked about hating cotton and how it hurts my hands. It's made up of 75% cotton, 25% acrylic microfiber. The Microfiber makes it silky soft and gives it a bit of drape. It is elastic enough hide stitch inconsistencies better than 100% cotton. Love. Love. Love. It's lightweight and comfortable to wear as well.

The specs: I used 8 skeins of Rowan Calmer in "Refresh"- about 1400 yards- for the 40" size. I used US size 6 needles. It is knit and pieces and seemed up before you attach everything on one long circular needle for the yoke. It could have been modified to knit in the round, but the front is shorter than the back to make the neck dip lower in the front, so you would have to plan on that.

WIP- Phyllo Yoked Pullover

I just can't seem to help myself- as soon as I have one sweater off the needles, another one gets cast on right away.

I impulsively cast on for the Phyllo Yoked Pullover.



It's from Norah Gaughan's book "Knitting Nature". I bought the book when it first came out a few years ago, but let it sit on the shelf until I felt confident enough to tackle a project. Her patterns tend to have unusual construction elements or some sort of crazy cable or lace pattern that looks harder than it actually is.



This pattern is fairly simple- you knit the body and sleeves in plain stockinette, attach everything on one circular needle, and then start the yoke pattern. There are decreases worked into the pattern so the spiraling diamonds get progressively smaller as you work your way up to the neck.



It is also very addicting...I haven't put this thing down since I started it a couple weeks ago.

Since it's the season that requires me to try non-wool yarns, I decided to give Rowan Calmer a shot. It's a cotton/microfiber blend. I'm really quite pleased with it...cotton usually hurts my hands because I find it tough and inflexible, but the microfiber really does wonders to make this soft and almost silky.



Meanwhile the Escargot mitts are languishing away at the bottom of my knitting bag. I need a sunny afternoon to sit in the park and finish those already.