In a State of Flux
- Susanna
- Sep 12
- 6 min read
My favorite season is here: sweater weather! As excited I am about the cooler days and getting to pull on a cozy sweater in the morning, I'm also thrilled to share my newest design, State of Flux.
State of Flux is a reversible top-down cowl neck pullover that plays with duality at every level: smooth versus fluffy, stockinette versus brioche, right side versus wrong. The duality extends even to the yarn choice: the sweater is knit using a fingering-weight wool and a fluffy lace-weight silk mohair. In essence, the sweater is in a constant state of flux.
The body of the sweater is done in stockinette holding the two yarns together but where you'd normally have ribbing, there's two-color brioche instead. It's the best of both worlds: you get the squishiness of brioche accents without added extra bulk and speedy knitting elsewhere on the body when holding two yarns together.
My absolute favorite feature about the sweater is the generous, drapey cowl neck that's folded double regardless of which way you wear the sweater. The cowl is very long and — since it's done entirely in two-color brioche — takes a very long while to knit but it's all worth the effort. The cowl neck matches the ribbing done on the sleeve cuffs and hems as well, showing the dynamic brioche pattern.
A minimalist stockinette body with a few brioche accents make the State of Flux an engaging, but approachable knit. The stitch pattern used on the cowl neck, hem ribbing, and sleeve cuffs employs brioche increases (brK-yo-brK) and left-and right-leaning brioche decreases (brLsl-dec and brRsl-dec) in a clever way to create a rhythmic, fluctuating effect. Prior brioche experience and the ability to read brioche charts will definitely help but I've also included round-by-round written instructions for the brioche stitch.
At its core, State of Flux is an asymmetric compound raglan worked seamlessly from the top down. Compared to conventional top-down raglans this means that:
raglan increases are worked in an S-curve pattern, alternating between every other and every fourth row
body and sleeves increases are independent of each other and worked at different rates
back raglan seams are longer than those on the front to account for the asymmetry in the human body
In addition to the tweaked raglan shaping, the pattern also has short rows to lower the front neck. After all, you don't want that cozy cowl neck strangling you.
The unique thing about State of Flux is that the sweater is fully reversible: you can wear it either with the smooth stockinette or the looped reverse-stockinette side as the right side. In essence, you get two distinct looks for the money, time, effort, and yarn of knitting just one garment.
The marled effect you get from holding fingering-weight wool and lace-weight silk mohair together emphasizes these different looks, giving a subtle contrast and depth whichever way you wear the sweater. The brioche ribbing is mirrored: light-on-dark versus dark-on-light, pointing towards the right or to the left.
To make your sweater truly reversible, here are a few tips and tricks you can use:
Cast on and bind off in pattern. All edges in the pattern a made in 1×1 brioche ribbing. Use a cast-on and bind-off method that creates both knits and purls so that the two sides look balanced. Some people swear by tubular methods for brioche but I prefer to use alternating long-tail cast-on in two colors and elastic bind-off in brioche pattern.
Use provisional cast-on at underarms. When separating body and sleeves, cast on new stitches at the underarms using a provisional cast-on method. When it's time to work the sleeves, the underarm stitches are already live, eliminating the need to pick up stitches which always leaves a bit of a seam or ridge on the wrong side of fabric.
Join yarns invisibly. To minimize ends that need to be woven in, join a new ball of yarn using a felted join (a.k.a. spit splice) whenever possible, especially when using wool blends. If your yarns are not feltable and spit-splicing isn't an option, use the Russian join or clasped weft join. Although many people swear by the magic knot method for joining yarns, I'd recommend staying away from knots — in all knit projects!
Weave in ends invisibly. Not all ends can be avoided. In stockinette (e.g., at the underarms), weave in ends using duplicate stitch so they disappear into the fabric without showing on either side. In brioche (cast-on and bind-off tails), hide yarn tails by threading them under the yarnover legs in a stitch column of the same color, one on the right side and the other on the wrong side of the garment.
State of Flux is available in 10 sizes from XS to 6X, and is intended to be worn with a moderate amount of positive ease (5–7.5 cm or 2–3 inches) for a cozy, comfortable look. Finished body circumferences — omitting optional bust and waist shaping — range between 76–169 cm or 29¾–66½ inches.
To ensure a good fit in the shoulders and upper body, pick a size based on upper-bust circumference, then add vertical bust darts if necessary. The pattern includes ready-made instructions for B-cup (sizes XS to M), D-cup (sizes L to 4X), or F-cup (sizes 5X and 6X) darts but you can calculate custom bust shaping based on your own measurements. Finished bust circumferences including the suggested bust darts range between 80–183 cm or 31½–72¼ inches but this can be adjusted based on your body measurements.
The pattern also includes waist shaping instructions, creating an hourglass silhouette that's narrower at the waist and again gets wider towards the brioche ribbing at the hem. Both bust and waist shaping are optional: you can skip them completely and knit the body of the sweater straight for a casual, more relaxed look.
To knit State of Flux you'll two yarns in the following amounts:
for Yarn A (fluffy lace-weight yarn, such as mohair, mohair/silk, or brushed alpaca), approx. 810–1670 m or 890–1830 yd, and
for Yarn B (smooth fingering-weight yarn, such as pure wool or a wool blend), approx. 860–1800 m or 940–1970 yd
in total: 1670–3470 m or 1830–3800 yd
That may seem like a lot — and it is! — but the don't forget that majority of the sweater is knit with holding the yarns together. Size-by-size yardages are listed on the pattern page.
In my sample sweater I used Filcolana Tilia (70% mohair, 30% silk, 210 m/25 g, 230 yd/0.88 oz) in the colorway Azalea for Yarn A and Isager Tweed (70% wool, 30% mohair, 200 m/50 g, 219 yd/1.76 oz) in the colorway Wine for Yarn B. Together, pairing a dark burgundy with a hot pink creates a marled magenta look that makes fabric shimmer.
For a design like State of Flux you'll want color pairings with both contrast and harmony: two colors that are somewhat similar but not precisely the same. The bigger the contrast between the two yarns, the more will the brioche sections stand out. But high-contrast yarns will also make the marled stockinette sections more muddied.
It's a bit of a tightrope act to strike the right balance between tonal versus too much contrast. Here are a few suggestions for picking color combinations (left to right):
blush pink mohair + ivory fingering: airy and delicate with a hint of warmth
coral mohair + rust fingering: a warm, glowing autumnal look
chartreuse mohair + forest green fingering: tonal depth with slight mossy sheen
deep teal mohair + charcoal fingering: creates a smoky peacock marl
For more advice on how to combine a fluffy mohair yarn with another color, read the tin can knits' blog post Layering With Mohair.
The pattern for State of Flux is now available for purchase in my pattern shops on Payhip, LoveCrafts, and Ravelry (seizure warning). I'd love to see how you pair colors for the design! Share your sweater on Instagram using the hashtags #stateoffluxsweater and #talviknits. And tag me, @talviknits, so I can find your project.
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