I grew up in rural New England, where the orchards are plentiful and apple picking is a family tradition. Most years, as summer turned into fall, my family would drive out to one of the area orchards and fill baskets with apples – golden delicious, granny smiths, cortlands, and macouns. It’s a ritual I now miss, and it’s one my grandfather missed when he left his Connecticut home for Maryland. When, during that first fall, he could not find his favorite variety, he enlisted my mother to pick bags of macouns and bring them to him when she visited each autumn.

Named after my grandfather’s favorite, Macoun Apple is a cardigan meant to be worn all through apple picking season and beyond. Worked up in hardy fingering or sport-weight wool, and with distinctive saddle shoulders and lace details along the sleeves and back yoke, Macoun Apple is a cardigan as classic as apple pie.

Finished Chest Measurement

20(21, 22, 23) (25, 27, 28½, 30) inches; 50(53, 55, 58) (62.5, 69, 72, 75) cm

Sweater is worked with 1½ to 2” (4 - 5 cm) of positive ease at the chest just below underarms

Yardage Requirements

525(585,620,650) (725,850,925,1010) yards Quince and Co. Chickadee in Iceland (100% wool, 181 yards/50 grams)

Construction
Constructed using the simultaneous saddle shoulder method described by Barbara Walker, this sweater is top-down and seamless. The saddles are worked first as two tabs, and stitches are cast on and picked up from each saddle’s side to form the yoke. This is an ideal sweater for intermediate knitters who are interested in new top-down construction techniques; a diagram illustrating the yoke construction is included for knitters unfamiliar with this construction method.

The first few rows of the yoke are easier to knit using longer circular needles and a modified magic loop method to get around the tight corners.

This pattern includes written and charted instructions for the lace.

Designer Notes

Sample is worked in light sport weight yarn at a firm gauge, but the pattern can also be knit in fingering weight yarn for a slightly looser fabric

When working buttonholes, you will bind off four sts per the written instructions in the “techniques” section. The total number of stitches worked for each buttonhole (including the first slipped stitch and all bound off stitches) is five.