Njord Pullover in Cast on Spring 2020 February 1, 2020 02:48

I don't know about you, but the prospect of Spring has me thinking of warm-weather knits. Some of my favorite things about Spring and Summer knits are organic cotton, short sleeves and wearing pullovers instead of cardigans.

The Njord pullover is all of those! I'm really looking forward to having this top as part of my Spring and Summer wardrobe. The Skinny organic cotton from Blue Sky Fibers is so soft against the skin, it really feels so comfortable and cool to wear.

Njord is worked seamlessly (like most of my sweaters are), and from the bottom up. The back and front are divided at the underarms and worked separately to the shoulders, where they are shaped with short-rows and joined with the Three-needle bind-off. I also include instructions for bound-off shoulders if you'd prefer to seam them.

The sleeves are picked up and worked in the round. The caps are shaped using short-rows, in 2x2 ribbing. Then the neckband stitches are picked up around the neckline for a comfortable crew neck.

My favorite part about designing this, was figuring out how to incorporate the waist shaping into the diamond pattern. I cast on for this sample sweater three times before I got it just right.

I opted to create a faux seam by twisting a column of purl stitches all along each side of the body. This makes it so the increases and decreases may occur to either side of the faux seam resulting in a mirrored effect in the Diamond Pattern.

The Njord pullover pattern is available in the Spring 2020 issue of Cast on Magazine. It's available online as a digital issue and there are bunches of other great designs included, such as the Heartbeat Pullover, by Therese Chynoweth and Mandala Cowl by Manisha Gajria.

The Spring 2020 issue of Cast On Magazine has been recently published, and is available to all members of The Knitting Guild Association (TKGA). If you're not a member, you can sign up here, and gain access to TONS of valuable knitting info including these patterns of mine. Well worth the yearly membership price.

One of the things I love about Cast On is that they request designers include "Designer Notes" and "Technical Tips" throughout the patterns, to give a little bit more information about what's going on. Not a whole lot of publishers request nor include things like this, and I think it can be really helpful sometimes to explain further than simply "do this", and to explain the "why" and "what's going on" as well. Cast On really is an educational journal for knitters.

So, what do you think of this sweater? Leave a comment below!