This design caught my eye right away due to its unisex appeal. I was looking for a top-down, seamless pullover for my 14-year-old nephew’s birthday which was quickly approaching. This design fit the bill, and the textured stitch patterns were like icing on the cake. It’s a quick knit, easy and definitely interesting to knit.

This is the first time I’ve used this yarn, and I really like it. It’s a 6-ply, light worsted weight with a slight sheen and heathered coloring. It has more of a twist than the Lion Brand Heartland so I’m hoping it will pill and snag less. It knits up quite drapey on size 8 needles. Machine washability is always a plus when it comes to teenagers. You can even throw this in the dryer, though I always discourage it. This garment has lots of stretch, and is very comfortable. The yarn is SUPER soft. I’ll use it again.

I highly recommend using lots of stitch markers to separate each repeat of the textured charts. For my size, this repeat was 12 sts for the main body and a bit more on each side to begin with.

I made some minor modifications to fit a male:

Natalie allowed us some liberties in testing this pattern. At least one tester did not include any of the texture stitches on the lower body or sleeves. I rather like the texture. Since we’re using all one color, it doesn’t really contribute to the effect of added girth in the mid section. Following are some things that I did differently.

• The neckband (size 7 US needle) was much too loose for a guy, so I used this technique (size E crochet hook) to tighten it up since I was in a hurry. I had to skip every 5th slip stitch in order to cinch in the neckband enough. This resulted in some minor “gathering” of the yoke area, but it’s not too bad. If I had it to do over again, I would cast on fewer stitches to begin with and then do a few rounds with increases until I reach the original number of stitches in the pattern. But this would make the sleeve depth even greater, so I’d probably then have to adjust that (raise it) a bit.

• German short rows are done AFTER the yoke is complete and they are optional. I did the short rows and didn’t make any changes in this area.

• The pattern has the option of doing some hip increases if knitting for a female. I did the opposite, since my nephew’s shoulders and chest are larger than his hips. After completing the Upper Body Main Chart (27 rows / 184 sts around for the large size), I decreased a total of 8 stitches on each side (every 5th round) until I had a 12-stitch repeat on each side. So this made the final zig-zag texture chart (Lower Body Chart) very easy with all sections being a 12-stitch repeat all around. (14 sections x 12 = 168 sts all around for the bottom texture chart and twisted ribbing.) All of this decreasing was done in the 16 plain rounds (P1, K11 mostly) between the Upper Body Main chart and the Lower Body zig-zag.

• I only did rows 16 - 23 of the Lower Body Main Chart. I thought this was enough texture, and I wanted a bit more space of plain knitting before starting the twisted ribbing at the bottom. I did 7 plain rounds (P1, K11) between the bottom zig-zag and the twisted ribbing.

• Bottom/hip ribbing: I did one extra round of the twisted ribbing (total 13 rounds) using the same size 8 US needle as I used for the body. I bound off loosely in pattern using a size 9 US needle. Bottom ribbing measures approximately 2 inches in height.

Sleeves were identical. Following are my notes for 1 sleeve:

• I picked up 64 sts (50 + 14)

• Decreased 4 sts at underarm on next round. (60 sts)

• Knit 7 rounds straight

• Decreased 2 sts at underarm on next round (58 sts)

• Did the Upper Body Main Chart and Upper Body Side Chart (27 rows), decreasing 2 sts on rounds 12 and 21, (54 sts). I had to modify the Upper Body Side Chart a little to accommodate fewer stitches.

• Knit 16 rounds straight, decreasing 2 sts on rounds 4 &, 14. (50 sts)

• Did the Lower Body Main Chart, but only rows 16 - 23 of the chart. Note that I had to do a modification in the underarm section due to having more than 12 sts in that area.

• Did 7 rounds straight, decreasing on the 1st round (48 sts)

• I did not decrease any further since I wanted to have the sleeve ribbing be a multiple of 12 sts. To compensate for the 2 extra sts, I did the twisted ribbing of the cuff using size 6 US needle. (18 rounds total using the Bottom Twisted Ribbing Chart for small size which has a 12-st repeat). Sleeve cuff ribbing measures approximately 3 inches in height. I bound off in pattern using Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off.

Sweater Measurements:

• Neck circumference is about 21” (unstretched).

• Chest circumference = 43.5 (unstretched)

• Lower edge circumference above ribbing = 37” (unstretched)

• Sleeve circumference at underarm = 14”

• Sleeve length from underarm = 14” (11” + 3” rib)

• Body length from underarm = 14.5” (12.5” + 2” rib).

Many thanks to Natalie for letting me test this great looking pullover!

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