North by Northwest
- Susanna
- 5 hours ago
- 5 min read
Designers often get asked about their sources for inspiration. For me personally, more often than not it's the yarn that informs the decision of what kind of a knit it wants to become. And that was the case with my latest design, Luode, a circular yoke colorwork sweater with a nautical theme.
Luode is worked seamlessly from the top down in two colors of DK-weight yarn. But how that came to be is a bit of a long story.
The main yarn in my sample sweater is Rintalan tilan 2-säikeinen silkkivillalanka, a rustic yet soft 2-ply DK-weight yarn made half-and-half of recycled silk and wool. I ran into it at the farm's booth at Jyväskylä Knit Fest last summer and quickly snatched up all the skeins they had. The yarn base is so new it isn't even available on their website. And how could I resist that deep, dark teal color? It's my brand's signature color for a reason.
At first, I wanted to knit a richly cabled sweater with the yarn but there were a few things going against it. For one, the color was so dark — almost black — that it would've been impossible to get any cabling to show up in photos. And two, there were only three 100-gram skeins, yielding around 800 meters in total. Cables eat up a lot of yarn so I knew there wasn't enough and no way of getting more...
Left: Rintalan tilan 2-säikeinen silkkivillalanka, right: Tukuwool Nordic Resilk.
Enter yarn no. 2: Tukuwool Nordic Resilk. This newest addition to the Tukuwool yarn line is the exact same yarn base: 50% recycled silk, 50% wool, 135 meters per 50 g. The only differences are that it comes in three undyed colorways and is sold in smaller, 50-gram skeins.
Having now two contrasting colors of the same (or close enough) yarn at my disposal, the decision was easy: colorwork it is.
The colors of the yarns also informed the theme the design was going to take and, in turn, its eventual name. A dark teal with a light gray led me to storming seas and coastal regions, and this inspired the maritime theme in the colorwork. The upper and lower motifs evoke water droplets and splashing waves… although some have said they see angry eyes or paw prints in them. They're abstract enough for different interpretations.
The scrollwork motif in the middle of the yoke colorwork is inspired by the azulejo ceramic tiles found in Spain and Portugal. These tiles are often blue and white in color and, when laid out across an entire wall, form repeating, geometric patterns with curlicues, branches and leaves, and fleur-de-lis like motifs.
The design theme was so deeply rooted in seafaring and navigation that I named it after one of the compass directions: luode, the Finnish word meaning northwest. The scrollwork pattern was originally arranged a little differently but, keeping with the name, I had to flip it so that the diagonal lines travel in the southwest-to-northwest direction.
The decorative two-color stranded colorwork on the yoke serves as the focal point of the design but elsewhere the sweater has clean lines and minimal detailing. For instance, the round neck has just a simple rolled edge that launches directly into the colorwork.
To make most out the limited amount of yarn available, the hem and cuffs feature a bit of two-color corrugated ribbing and rolled edges, mirroring the neck line. Icelandic bind-off is used on the hem and cuffs to give them a moderate amount of stretch and a bit of extra heft to the rolled edges.
In construction, Luode is a fairly typical seamless top-down round-yoke sweater, at least the way I prefer to design them. After the colorwork pattern but before body and sleeves are separated, a short section of short-row shaping and raglan increases are worked simultaneously to create a front-neck drop that's essential for nicely fitting round necklines in circular-yoke pullovers.
The easy part comes after the yoke. The body of the sweater is just simple stockinette in the main color which provides the perfect backdrop for incorporating shaping — both bust and waist — to customize the fit.
Luode comes in 10 sizes (XS–6X) and is intended to be worn with approximately 5 cm or 2 inches of positive ease. The pattern includes pre-calculated instructions for B-cup (sizes XS to M), D-cup (sizes L to 4X), or F-cup (sizes 5X and 6X) vertical bust darts but you can calculate custom bust shaping based on your own measurements — there's a worksheet at the end of pattern.
The pattern also has waist shaping to create an hourglass silhouette with decreases and increases. Both bust and waist shaping are optional: you can skip them completely and knit the body of the sweater straight for a more relaxed look. Finished body circumference — omitting bust shaping — ranges between 74–170 cm or 29¼–67 inches. Full bust circumference with the suggested bust darts incorporated ranges between 79–184 cm or 31–72½ inches.
As said, Luode is designed for two contrasting colors of DK-weight yarn. To knit the pattern you'll need them in the following amounts:
Main color (MC): approx. 760 (820, 970, 1050, 1150) [1250, 1360, 1490, 1590, 1720] m / 830 (890, 1060, 1150, 1260) [1370, 1480, 1630, 1740, 1880] yd
Contrasting color (CC): approx. 170 (180, 200, 200, 220) [240, 260, 290, 320, 340] m / 190 (200, 220, 220, 240) [260, 280, 320, 340, 370] yd
The suggested pattern gauge is 18 sts per 10 cm or 4 inches in stockinette and stranded colorwork so worsted-weight yarn will also do. In addition to yarn you'll also need 3.5 and 4.0 mm (or US size 4 and 6) circular needles, stitch markers, some waste yarn, and a tapestry needle for weaving in ends.
Luode is a great choice for knitters who enjoy visually-striking colorwork but prefer designs with a clean, modern look. The colorwork is worked entirely from charts so the pattern best suits knitters who are used to stranded knitting using charted instructions. While there aren't a lot of long floats, I recommend using Ladderback Jacquard where appropriate.
Because the shaping is customizable, Luode also works well for knitters who like a bit of flexibility in how their garments fit. If you enjoy thoughtful construction details, this pattern should feel right at home on your needles.
The pattern for Luode is now available in my pattern shops on Payhip, LoveCrafts, and Ravelry (seizure warning). I'd love to see how you paired colors for the design! Share your sweater on Instagram using the hashtags #luodesweater and #talviknits. And you can tag me @talviknits as well so I can find your project.
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