Le Rayon Vert, or the Green Ray, “has the virtue of making him who has seen it impossible to be deceived in matters of sentiment; at its apparition, all deceit and falsehood are done away, and he who has been fortunate enough once to behold it is enabled to see closely into his own heart and read the thoughts of others.”

In Jules Verne’s Le Rayon Vert, heroine Helena Campbell refuses love until she has succeeded in seeing the Green Ray. While evading her suitor, she unwittingly falls in love with another young man, and ultimately misses the appearance of the enlightening Green Ray because she is staring deeply into the eyes of her true love.
Is Helena’s Folly believing in the power of the Green Ray, or is it allowing herself to fall in love without safeguards? Perhaps this sweater will bring an enlightening answer.

With a sweetly relaxed silhouette, drapey cap sleeves and turned bottom and neck hems, it is a romantic knit for an insightful knitter.

Construction: Helena’s Folly is meant to drape gracefully from shoulder to high hip, and is knit with no body shaping; length may be added or subtracted by knitting more or fewer rows anywhere between the bottom hem and the armhole. Knit in the round from the bottom up with a turned hem, front and back are divided at the armholes and then worked separately to the shoulder, where they are finished with a 3-needle bind off. The front and back neck shaping is accomplished with short rows, so that the front and back are each knit with one continuous strand; neck edge stitches are kept live, and the turned neck edge is worked directly from them.

Techniques & Skills Used: provisional CO, knit/purl, knitting in the round, increasing, turned hems, short rows, 3-needle Bind off.

Size: 31 (34, 36.5, 39.5, 42, 45, 48, 52, 55.5)” bust; shown in second size worn with 2” negative ease.

Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Sock (100% superwash merino; 440 yards/402m/ 100g), shown in Rayon Vert; 2 (2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4) skeins, or approximately 750 (850, 950, 1050, 1175, 1300, 1450, 1600, 1750) yards of light fingering weight yarn.

Other Materials: US 6 (4mm) 24” and 32” circular needles; Scrap yarn; Stitch markers (6); Stitch holders; Yarn needle.

Gauge: 22 st and 32 rows/4” in stockinette stitch, after blocking.

Thank you to my lovely test knitters!