This is the cover for The Nordic Knitting Primer.

How I love this sweater! I hope you do,too!

Linnea is the tutorial for catching floats in Chapter 3. Linnea is knit top down, in the round. You get to start right off with the colorwork. Chapter three has photo tutorials for catching floats with the contrasting color and catching floats on the main color. I also show you where I would catch floats while making Linnea. After catching floats with me on Linnea, you will catch floats easily and naturally on everything you knit from this point on. I am really excited about this tutorial in my book. It’s a valuable and unique tutorial for colorwork knitters. I hope you learn a lot while knitting Linnea. It will amaze you how you will catch floats with abandon, without even thinking about it.

Linnea was inspired by the Scandinavian folkart tradition of Rosmåling . This pattern is so fun to watch emerge on your needles. It’s knit top down, so the yoke is knit first. Next the stitches for the sleeves and arms are divided and you can knit the body and sleeves . When you are almost done, try on your Linnea so that you decide what the absolute perfect length is for you. I love that you can tailor fit your Linnea to you .

I love this sweater so much that I have personally knit Linnea three times. The second time I knit it, the pattern was lovely, but the last few rows didn’t seem familiar to me, which surprised me. I looked at my original chart, and it was the same as it is in the book. Then I looked at the first sweater I knit, and there were a few stitches that were different. A few stitches had been rearranged on my chart from my original design. I honestly don’t understand how this happened. It was some sort of software malfunction. Luckily the few side stitches in the pattern that the computer generated made a beautiful pattern. Not even the test knitters noticed it. But it’s not exactly the pattern I originally designed and knit for my book. Luckily, I was able to reconstruct the original design from my sample of Linnea. I am posting the chart on my website under errata. Luckily both patterns work and are lovely, but I wanted you to have access to my original design. Click on the link to errata on the top of this page and it will take you directly to it. You can decide which version you would like to make.

To learn more about my book, my work, my knitting philosophy and see what I’m designing now, check out my new website scandiwork.com

SIZES
XXS (XS, S, SM, M, ML, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL)
3 inches (7.5 cm) positive ease
MATERIALS
YARN: DK | Brooklyn Tweed Arbor | 100% American
Targhee Wool | 145 yards (132 m) per 1.75-ounce
(50-g) skein
MAIN COLOR (MC): Rainer (Blue) | 6 (6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 8,
8, 8, 9, 10) skeins 825 (840, 870, 945, 975, 1015, 1075,
1125, 1170, 1245, 1345) yards / 754 (768, 795, 864, 891,
928, 982, 1028, 1069, 1138, 1229) m
CONTRAST COLOR (CC): Hammock (White) | 1 (1, 1,
2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3) skein(s) 145 (145, 145, 290, 290, 290,
290, 290, 290, 435, 490) yards / 132 (132, 132, 265, 265,
265, 265, 265, 265, 397, 448) m
NEEDLES: One 32-inch (80-cm) or 40-inch (100-cm)
circular needle for the body and one set of double-pointed
needles (DPNs), FlexiFlips, or a 16-inch (40-cm)
circular needle for the sleeves in size needed to
obtain gauge in colorwork and single color
SUGGESTED NEEDLE SIZE: US 7 (4.5 mm)
One 32-inch (80-cm) or 40-inch (100-cm) circular
needle for the ribbing on the body, one 16-inch
(40-cm) for the ribbing at the neck, and one set of
double-pointed needles (DPNs) or FlexiFlips for the
ribbing on the sleeves in three sizes smaller than
gauge-size needles
SUGGESTED NEEDLE SIZE: US 4 (3.5 mm

SKILLS YOU’LL PRACTICE
Long-tail cast on
Duplicate stitch join
Joining in the round seamlessly
Working 1x1 ribbing (k1, p1)
Knitting with two colors in the round, Reading a chart.
Catching floats with the main and contrasting colors
Backward loop increase .
Casting on stitches for the underarm
Picking up stitches for the sleeve
DPN work for the sleeves
Splicing yarn
Weaving a new yarn color in (and out)
K2tog decrease
Ssk decrease