When the Wolf inside is calling…
According to Ingmar Bergman (cult Swedish director), Vargtimmen (Hour of the Wolf) is the hour of the night during which the most births and deaths occur. It’s the hour of Transcendence; the hour when the wall between two worlds, of the living ones and of the living nightmares, is thin and weak; the point where you should decide: would you fight your demons or would you dance with them. All this sense I put into this pattern.

This is an oversized lopapeysa which is meant to be a top in layering. It is knitted bottom-up; it has a round yoke with colorwork; the yoke transitions into a round, deep hood with a button band; the bottom of the body has a tunnel pocket and flaps on the sides. The whole lopapeysa is seamless, it only has a few sections of picked up stitches in under arms. The pattern contains clear, full instructions and is supplied with multiple links on video tutorials.

Languages: English, Ukrainian

Number of pages: 22

Skill level: upper intermediate

Estimated time spent: 25-35 hours (for sample made in size 3)

Skills and techniques involved:

• knitting in the round / small round

• traditional long tail cast on

• backwards loop cast on

• traditional bind off

• picking up stitches

• stranded colorwork, or other techniques working with several colors

• short rows “Wrap and Turn” (or other method of your choice)

  The pattern is written for 7 sizes: 1 (2, 3, 4) (5, 6, 7) with a lopapeysa finished bust circumference of appr. 80 (90, 100, 110) (120, 130, 140) cm / 31.5 (35.5, 40, 43.3) (47.2, 51.2, 55.1)” and the garment is meant to be worn with a positive ease of appr. 6-10 cm / 2.5-4‘’ in the bust, or more for more layers to add.

  Meterage/yardage (appr.):
  Color A: 408 (473, 566, 692) (755, 841, 920) gr / 14.4 (16.7, 20, 24.4) (26.6, 29.7, 32.5) oz, or 816 (946, 1132, 1384) (1510, 1682, 1840) m / 893 (1035, 1238, 1514) (1652, 1839, 2013) yards Color B: 44 (48, 56, 62) (67, 72, 77) gr / 1.6 (1.7, 2, 2.2) (2.4, 2.6, 2.7) oz, or 88 (96, 112, 124) (134, 144, 154) m / 97 (105, 123, 136) (147, 158, 169) yards Color C: 22 (27, 33, 37) (40, 57, 61) gr / 0.8 (1, 1.2, 1.3) (1.4, 2, 2.2) oz, or 44 (54, 66, 74) (80, 114, 122) m / 49 (59, 73, 81) (88, 125, 135) yards

Gauge:
18.8 stitches and 22.3 rounds in 10 cm / 19 stitches and 22.6 rounds in 4’’ in stockinette in the round with needles 4.5 mm / US 7 / UK 7 after blocking
18.8 stitches and 18.4 rounds in 10 cm / 19 stitches and 18.7 rounds in 4” in colorwork in the round with needles 4.5 mm / US 7 / UK 7 after blocking
18.18 stitches and 19.23 rows in 10 cm / 18.47 stitches and 19.54 rows in 4” in stockinette flat with needles 4.5 mm / US 7 / UK 7 after blocking
Why is my gauge so precise?
I believe that the most accurate method to determine the gauge is to measure the whole length and width of the blocked swatch and to divide each value accordingly to the amount of the stitches and rows/rounds that you made to create your swatch. In this case, you will get fractions. Rounding these fractions to smaller or bigger whole numbers will lead to inaccurate measurements of the finished object. Only the sum of all the stitches and rows/rounds used to make an object could be rounded to maximum half of the whole number.

Additional materials and tools:

• additional pair of needles 4.5 mm / US 7 / UK 7 of any length, for a pocket
• DPN of size 4 mm / US 6 / UK 8 for sleeves/cuffs (optional)
• hook 4.5 mm / G-7 / UK 7
• 2 long scrap threads
• up to 17 stitch markers
• 1 progress keeper (optional)
• at least 2 buttons of appr. d=2 cm / 0.8”, or desired amount of buttons of desired size