Midsommar Pullover
Materials
Yarn: Brooklyn Tweed Imbue Sport 190 yards per 50 g skein American Merino Wool
Main color Boro (navy) 5 (5, 6, 7, 8, 9) skeins or 250 (250, 300, 350, 350, 400) grams. Or approx. 815 (930,1066, 1182, 1382, 1554) yards / 745 (850,974,1062,1273, 1421) meters.
Contrasting Color: Crepe (cream) 4 (4, 4, 5, 6, 7) skeins or 200 (200, 250, 250, 250, 300) grams or approx. 642 (691, 777, 863, 1211, 1321) yards or 587 (631, 680, 710, 789, 1107, 1207) meters
Needles: U.S. Size 3 (3.25 mm) and 4 (3.5 mm/ gauge-size needle) 32-inch or 40-inch circular needles for larger sizes. U.S. size 3 (3.25 mm) double-point needles. Size 4 (3.5 mm) double-pointed needles and/or 16-inch circular needle (or size needed to obtain gauge). Tapestry needle
Gauge and swatch
25 stitches and 26 rows = 4 inches on larger needle
Please swatch in the round to determine needle size.
Sizes:
1 (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
Ease: 4-8 inches (10-20) positive ease
Model is wearing Size 2 with an 8” inch (20 cm) positive ease.
Finished measurements
Chest 35.5 (41, 46, 51.25, 56.25,61.5) inches/ 89 (102.5, 115.5, 128,141, 153.5, 160) cm
Sleeve length:18.5 (18.5, 18.5,18.5, 19.75, 19.75) inches / 47 (47, 47, 47, 50, 50) cm.
Armscye depth: 7.25 (7.75, 8.5, 9.25, 9.75, 10.5) inches /18.5 (19.5, 21, 23, 24.5, 26) cm
Length from cast on edge to underarm: 16.25 (15.75, 15.25, 14.5, 18.25, 17.5) inches /40 (39, 37.5, 36.5, 46.5, 45) cm
Length from cast on edge to neckline shaping: 19 (19, 19.25, 19.25, 23.75, 23.75) inches / 48.5 (48.5, 49, 49, 60.5, 60.5) cm
Body length: 23.5 (23.5, 23.75, 23.75, 28, 28) inches / 58.5 (58.5, 59.5, 59.5, 71, 71) cm
For additional size options. Change the gauge to 24 stitches over 4 inches (10) cm and the finished chest measurements would be 37 (42.75, 48, 53,58, 64) inches / 92.5. 106.75, 120, 131. 146.75, 160) cm.
Midsommar is an all-over colorwork pullover that celebrates the height of summer. I’ve always loved flowers. When we were newlyweds just starting out in life (and fairly poor), I had a small weekly budget for fresh flowers. Summer gardens are something that I carry with me year-round. There’s a sense of longing and remembering, looking back, and looking forward. Summer gardens carry with them the hope of a new season, with a nod to the past. Often in January, although I love winter, I find myself thumbing through seed catalogs and dreaming of planting our garden the next spring. Designing this sweater reminded me of that exercise. I began working on the design in the late spring by sketching and playing with floral motifs, then knit the prototype into early summer, then wrote the pattern and did the photoshoot with our daughter Anna at the height of blackberry season. I love how, once summer is upon us, with all its bounty, our thoughts turn to winter and ways to preserve the summer harvest, so that we can eat tomatoes and corn and berries all winter. My grandma called this canning season. Putting up blackberries makes it so we have glorious jam all winter. This design is just like that! It lets us wear flowers during the winter. And if you look closely and squint, the flowers carry a snowy nod to winter. I’m going to wear this sweater year-round.
I love this motif so much that I also used it to create Mrs. Hall’s Midsummer Cardigan. You can bet there will be a pullover version of that sweater too.
Midsommar is knit bottom up. If you are new to bottom-up knitting, welcome. I hope you love knitting the pieces individually and joining them all together. I chose to knit bottom up in the traditional way because I wanted the knit stiches in the colorwork to have a “V” shape.
I knit Midsommar with super soft Brooklyn Tweed Imbue, first because it’s made from sheep from my home State of Utah. I also fell in love with the yarn’s drape, feel and coziness. Knitting with this yarn led to a summer of Midsommar obsession knitting where I made four sweaters with this theme in a row.
Before we get started, let’s talk about colorwork! If you are working with a dark color for the background (MC) you can knit this piece in stranded colorwork. If you are working with a light color for the background and a dark color for the contrasting color, you will need to work ladder-back jacquard for the long floats It’s nice to add the LBJs when you need them, and then binding them off when you can and work in stranded colorwork. There’s a nice rhyme to working like this. I hope you enjoy it.
The construction for Midsommar is unique. The sleeves are knit first so that you can know exactly what your row gauge is so that it will help you tailor-fit the sleeve to the body and calculate exactly where to start the armscye on the body of the sweater that is perfect for you. Next the body is knit.
From the cast on to the underarm, Midsommar is knit in the round. At the underarm, the front is divided from the back for the armscye. From then on, you will work the front flat as one piece until you bind off for the neckline. Then the front left and right sides are worked separately. Then you will work the stitches for the back. The front and the back shoulders are joined together with a three-needle bind off. The sleeves are attached to the body with duplicate stitches. I am so excited about this step. I wanted to create a bottom-up version for the sleeves that imitates picking up and knitting the sleeves on a top-down sweater. I’m crazy about this detail! It joins the sleeve to the body beautifully and I love the way the sleeve hangs with this technique. It makes a super comfortable fit. I hope you love it as much as I do. Lastly, the neckband is picked up and knit, folded over and sewn into place with a whip stitch using the main color for thread.
Skills you will use to make Midsommar
Longtail cast on
Knit
Purl
Knit 1, purl 1 rib
Knit in stranded colorwork
Purl in standed colorwork
Most of the sweater is worked Knitting in the round
The top of the body is knit flat in colorwork
If you are new to purling in colorwork. Practice this skill by making a pair of my slippers like Inge, Ingeborg, Sørine, Hansdatter, Hans Christian…
Bind off in colorwork
Ladder Back Jacquard if you are using a light colored background (or just for fun)
Three needle bind off
Duplicate stitch grafting
Increasing in colorwork
Purling Ladder Back Jacquard (if you are using a light colored background, or just for fun)
