Go take a look at my newest design with the Twist Collective Winter 2010 issue – Parcel.

It somehow seems fitting that this sweater ended up being called Parcel, as it seemed like the parcel that would never arrive!  It spent several days sitting in Canadian customs while we waited to see if it would ever get out.

But it did eventually get to Kate, and the photographer Jane Heller did an amazing job with the photography (I just love the light in the photo below).

This pattern started for me with the cable.  I swatched this delicate intertwining cable and immediately fell in love.  Originally it was worked with a reverse st st panel on each side but it really took away from the overall concept of the sweater as the cables stopped in different places as you moved up the garment.  I talked with Kate about it for a while and we decided to try a st st background which ended up being just perfect (see the swatch below).

This sweater is designed to have 2 cables together running up to one shoulder and then 2 more further spaced apart, with one ending at the bust and the final one on the other side ending at the waist.  The way the pattern is written you can easily adjust the length of those cables to suit yourself so if you want them ending sooner or running for longer you can easily do that.

I didn’t realise when I started this project what a volume of number crunching there would be involved!  Each of the nine sizes is designed to ensure that the two cables are centered at the shoulder and for the larger sizes I have an extra cable running up the side so that it should work well as the pattern is upsized.  I used one of my favorite construction techniques with this pattern, the body is knit in one piece from the bottom up.  Shoulders are joined using a three needle bind off and then the sleeves are knit from the top down (using short rows to create a smooth set-in sleeve cap).

We took a couple of photos of me wearing the sweater before it was sent off.  The color is a little off though as it was late in the evening and the light was nearly gone (plus I was exhausted!)  While i was working on the sweater I always called it the Intertwined Cables Sweater, pretty obvious why.

I hadn’t worked with Magnolia yarn before, it is a mixture of merino and silk that has a very light twist that was lovely to work with, very soft and fluffy!  I does seem like I’m knitting a lot of pink these days…