A sweater for dirty stop outs, stubbornly staying up to watch the stars come out and the daisies shut up shop on those long summer nights…or just staying the in park that hour longer than you meant to…This design was inspired by the Victorian-medieval art of the pre-raphelites (dirty stop outs, the lot of them) and features the deeply scooped neckline and fitted sleeves with flared cuffs so beloved of the genre.

This sweater weighs almost nothing and folds up tiny, so you won’t mind carrying it along or rolling it up into a bag just on the off-chance that you get an unexpected incentive to linger.

I’ve worked mine in a mostly acrylic yarn to stand being repeatedly stuffed into the bottom of my capacious handbag and sat on in the grass. But this will make a delicious luxury knit with silk/and or wool and mohair mixes.

Created using seamless bottom up yoke sweater construction there is a delicate open pattern on the yoke. Hemmed borders give a neat finish. This is worked at a very open and airy gauge and so makes a surprisingly quick knit despite the fine yarn.

This sweater has been purposely designed to be an easy and relaxing knit. The simplicity of the shaping means that it is straightforward to adjust the sweater to your gauge, and notes are provided to assist you to do this - or indeed to knit a custom chest size.

Finished chest sizes:
XS – 80cm/31 ½ inches
S – 90cm/ 35 ½ inches
M –100cm/39 ¼ inches
L – 110cm/43 ¼ inches
XL -120cm/ 47 ¼ inches
XXL – 130cm/51 ¼ inches

My sample is modelled with about 2 inches / 5cm of positive ease. Test samples were mostly in the region of 2-4 inches (5-10 cm) of positive ease.

Yarn choices
I suggest a yarn with a halo for this knit as the long fibres of mohair, angora or alpaca mixes “fill in the gaps” of the open gauge giving the fabric coherence without losing a summery airiness. This is not essential and some testers chose smooth yarns. The yarn I used (the Stylecraft Lace) is 3-ply (despite the name - and note that this yarn has been re-categorised by the manufacturer so is still showing up as 4-ply above) but you could experiment with suitable lace weight yarns held double or 4-ply yarns. Bear in mind that the yoke pattern does require a really open gauge to appear lacy - worked at a tighter gauge you will have a closed, textured pattern.

The beautiful examples by Clintrer and ToneCecilie show just some of the many other shades available in the Stylecraft yarn, whilst the photos of other tester’s work shows the stunning results you can achieve with creative yarn substitution.

Pattern also contains a separate sheet for download that offers guidance on adjusting the pattern for gauge.