This was my contribution to the 2 Week Sweater Challenge that Kate Gilbert dreamt up. Read more here.

You may notice that some cables are miscrossed (it doesn’t form a truly woven lattice), and that the 3-needle collar join isn’t quite centered. Well, that’s just how I roll. But honestly, it’s a miracle this thing was done in time to photograph. Norah and I were seaming it AT the shoot.

It is very easy to fix if you’d prefer a more correct Aran. Personally, it cracks me up. It feels like an idiosyncratic knit, and it still keeps me warm.

10/17/2011 Greetings! This pattern continues to be popular so I wanted to include some updates/notes. As I point out in the pictures here, the original sweater is not a truly woven lattice. If you’d like yours to be correctly woven, hold the FDKC sts on Row 13 in the BACK instead of Front. See an example here. The pattern as written will give you a non-woven lattice, the sample shown is half-correct, half-incorrect. Yes, I’m a dolt, and had I known this pattern would have been so popular I would have definitely duplicate stitched over the mistake in my sample.

The second most popular question has been about the Cross Stitch Cables. You are asked to wrap the yarn around the needle TWICE each time you purl. This is no big deal: insert your needle as if to purl and wrap the yarn around the needle two time. Push or pull those two loops back through the stitch, and repeat 3x.

On the following row you’re asked to purl those stitches DROPPING THE EXTRA WRAP on each stitch. This is easy too: you just purl the stitch and let the extra loop slip off of your left-hand needle. You’ll notice that this leaves the stitch loose and elongated. This will help with the next step which is a bit of a weird cable: usually when you cable, you are switching the position of stitches and knitting them out of order. With this stitch you are actually passing the stitches THROUGH each other, then knitting them out of order. You make them longer so that it’s easier to do this odd rearranging.

I hope that helps! Feel free to ask if you need any additional clarification, and thank you so much for your interest in this pattern.

RIGHT CROSS-STITCH CABLE (Worked over 8 sts)

Row 3: P2, sl 4 WYIB, dropping extra 4 wraps; return these 4 sts to LH needle, pass the last 2 sts slipped over the first 2 and k them in this crossed position, p2.

LEFT CROSS-STITCH CABLE (Worked over 8 sts)

Row 3: P2, sl 4 WYIB, dropping extra 4 wraps; with point of LH needle, pass the first 2 sts slipped over the last 2; return these 4 sts to LH needle and k them in this crossed position, p2.