This sweater was knit mostly during the long hours of a Fringe season one marathon, and it is lovingly named after one of the show’s main characters. Walter Bishop is the fumbling, adorable genius responsible for the advancement of science and technology beyond what the human mind is able comprehend. Yet, to look at him, one would never guess what his brain is capable of conceiving, what strange and otherworldly experiments he may be conducting in his thoughts. He appears to be a simple old man that you quickly grow fond of.

The Bishop sweater is just that - an experiment in comfort. I say experiment because this sweater was knit completely without a pattern - and it’s the first sweater I’ve ever knit. I knew what I wanted to construct and what yarn I would be using, and with the help of an INCREDIBLE book as a guide, I set off into the unknown, listening to the voices of Walter Bishop and Olivia Dunham in the background as they explore the fringes of our reality.

This sweater is knit top-down, starting at the shoulders and knitting the top back and front sections flat, and then joining them at the underarm and working the body in the round. Sleeves and neckbands are added at the end. What I am posting here are my notes from my process; if you’re close to me in size you can follow this pattern to recreate the Bishop. However, if you want to substitute a very different yarn or if you need a much smaller or larger size, I must point you in the direction of the book that inspired me. Custom Knits, by Wendy Bernard of knitandtonic.net, is a virtual Rosetta Stone of sweater construction. It takes all the mystery out of designing and provides lots of support and examples for how to customize any pattern or convert a bottom-up to a top-down sweater.

Everybody should try designing on impulse sometime - experimenting is fun!