My Russian Jumper started as a dream… to spin, naturally dye and knit a sweater (jumper in England) in a design of my own devising. The fibre I used was Bluefaced Leicester (BFL). The blues were dyed with indigo for mid and dark indigo blues. The deep chartreuse was from Hemp Agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum).

I really love old Russian, Slavic and Scandinavian folk patterns and I wanted to pack in as many different motifs as I could rather like old embroidery samplers – so the body uses very different patterns to the sleeves but it all hangs together because the scale of the different patterns suits the different places they are used.

The jumper is knit from the bottom up, in the round on circular needles, The sleeves are knit top down and in the round, having picked up the necessary stitches from the armhole edges of the body. I think I forgot to say in the pattern that I use a crochet hook to pick up the stitches by pushing it through each armhole stitch and pulling the yarn through, then transferring it onto my circular needle.

The placement of the large motifs has been carefully planned so that they are balanced across the body and sleeves.

All the necessary charts are included - not only the individual body and sleeve motif charts but full pattern charts for the front body, back body and sleeves to guide the placement of your motifs.

Yarn:
Any medium gauge yarn – Worsted weight.

As an indication of the amount of yarn you will need, this is what it took with my handspun yarn:

650 grams – (MC) Chartreuse
350 grams – (SC1) Indigo
100 grams – (SC2) Dark indigo

What you will need:
I recommend using interchangeable needles and having a number of different lengths of cable to hand. That’s because I like trying on my work as I go along. If you also have cable connectors and end caps (see Other Equipment) you can join cables together so you can get your work over your head, and also leave work secure on the cables. But if that’s not possible these are the minimum you will need.

Also: Stitch markers and stitch holders. A crochet hook to help pick up stitches at the armhole edges of the body. A row counter is optional. And a large tapestry needle would be useful for finishing the ends.