I “favorited” this cute pattern the day it was posted on Ravelry. Heidi Kirrmaier has come up with another winner. Seamless, top-down, and try-on-as-you-go. What could possibly be better?!

Like all her patterns, this is extremely well written. The detailed instructions are shown in a graphical, clear manner (stitch numbers and counts in tables). I do have one suggestion to add to the clarity. On page 5, I was a little confused by the word “Set”. Just know that “SET 1” is not related to “1st Set”. “SET 2” is not related to “2nd Set”. Perhaps it would have been clearer to say “1st Repeat, 2nd Repeat …”, or “1st Time, 2nd Time …”, etc. on the right side of the page. Or the designer could have changed the left side of the page to say “SET A, SET B, SET C”. Either way would have been more clear to me. It didn’t take me too long to figure out the intent, though.

One of the best things about making this, was that I learned a new way of doing short rows. I thought I knew how to do short rows in every possible way, but alas, there’s a much easier and faster way - at least for this type of situation and this type of yarn. Read how to do it here:

http://cocoknits.com/resources/tutorials/short-rows/

Be sure to read these instructions BEFORE you start doing the short rows.

I’m making the smallest size due to the vast amount of positive ease in this pattern. I only did 6 repeats of Set 1, because I want it to be more of a sweater than a poncho. I made the sweater much shorter and with long sleeves. I have some notes below on how I did my sleeves.

I’m using the exact same yarn that Heidi used in her sample/pattern photo in the exact same color. This 100% Peruvian Highland wool is very soft, and so lovely to work with. There’s also a Superwash version of this same yarn in color 1946 Silver Grey. I wish there were more heathered colors available in the Cascade 220 Superwash Sport weight.

Needles used for this project:

Started with two 29” circulars.
Switched to one 47”.
Then one 60” to go around shoulders.
Finally back to one 47” for body below sleeves.
This allowed me to try on the sweater as I knit it.
Addi-Click interchangeables make switching cable lengths so easy. Used size 3 US needles for the neck and sleeve ribbing.

Notes on my long sleeves (as best I can remember). Instructions are the same for each sleeve:

After the 6th repeat of Set 1, I put the sleeve stitches on waste yarn. After finishing the body of the sweater, I then went back and transferred the sleeve sts back onto my size 4 (US) needles. I believe there were 74 sts at this point. I then did 8 repeats of the (12-row) hole pattern that I’d done down the front of the sweater, centering the hole design down the middle of the sleeve. During the first repeat or two, I somehow increased the number of sts per round to 86. I maintained this same number of stitches for each round for all remaining repeats. (8 repeats = 96 rounds)

Decrease Set (12 rounds):

Rnds 1, 4, 7, 10: K2 tog, Knit around to last 2 sts, SSK
Rnds 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12: Knit around

I had just completed round 108 (78 sts remain)

Repeat decrease set once again (12 more rounds).

I had just completed round 120 (70 sts remain)

Rnd 121: ^(K2tog, K2). Repeat from ^ around, ending with K2 (52 sts)

Rnd 122: ^(K5, K2 tog, K6, K2tog). Repeat from ^ around, ending with K5, K2tog (46 sts). May have done something a little different at the end of the round to end up with 46 sts. Just make sure that you end up with an EVEN number of sts.

Ribbed Sleeve Cuffs:

With smaller needle, do K1, P1 ribbing for 15 rounds. Bind off using Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bindoff. Note: I have long arms and small wrists.

The only thing I don’t like about this sweater is the I-cord hem. It rolls in spite of blocking.