This fall, designer Nadia Crétin-Léchenne @ncl_knits has come up with the perfect sweater to knit in Ulysse and Bérénice to pamper yourself!
Chic and casual at the same time, it’s the sweater we’ve been dream of putting on to start the best day possible 🙂
CONSTRUCTION
The “Twigtale” sweater is knit seamlessly from top to bottom, with a rounded neckline, European-style dropped armholes (with a raglan yoke in the back) and a cabled pattern on the front.
It starts by knitting the upper back with increases on the right and wrong sides. Stitches are then picked up along each side of the top of the back yoke to knit the right and left shoulders around the neckline in the cabled pattern. Stitches are joined together to knit the body, and the collar is made by picking up stitches around the neckline. Finally, stitches are picked up around the armholes to knit the sleeves.
The front is in a pretty, easy-to-hold cabled pattern, and the back and sleeves are knitted in stockinette stitch for a good balance between concentration and relaxation, making this a very pleasant knit 🙂
YARNS USED
For her version, Nadia chose the delicate, warm mix of Ulysse “biche” held together with with our mohair / Arles merino / silk yarn Bérénice “chocolat chaud”. The combination of the two yarns creates a soft, light, fluffy fabric that’s a real pleasure to wear!
These two colors knitted together create a slightly frosted light brown. We sampled this pattern by combining Ulysse “poivre blanc” + Bérénice “crème” to obtain a beautiful slightly changing off-white and Ulysse “amarante” + Bérénice “badiane” to obtain a very autumnal deep red brown 🙂
For Gilliatt fans, you can also opt for a Gilliatt version with the same gauge, which will be a little less sophisticated and with a more defined motif 🙂 You’ll find a lovely example of a Gilliatt “sky” sample on Ravelry.
HOW TO PICK YOUR SIZE
The pattern comes in 9 sizes corresponding to the following final measurements:
Finished bust circumference: 88 (99 – 110 – 121) 132 – 143 (154 – 165 – 176) cm.
Length of the body from the underarm (adjustable): 35 cm.
Circumference of the upper arm: 30 (33, 34, 36, 37) (40, 40, 40, 41) cm.
Sleeves lenght (adjustable): 47 cm.
The pattern is designed to be worn with a positive ease of 10 to 20 cm: to choose your size, add 10 to 20 cm to your chest circumference and choose the closest size of the pattern.
For example, with a 92 cm bust circumference, you could choose to knit the second size with 7 cm of positive ease for a slightly fitted result, or the third size with 18 cm of positive ease for a more relaxed result.
Both the height of the sweater and the length of the sleeves can be extended without difficulty thanks to the top-down construction. Just be sure to allow for a little extra yarn.
TECHNIQUES AND SKILL LEVEL
This pattern is at an intermediate level and will require to know how to cast on and bind off, increase (M1R and M1L on RS and WS) and decrease, knit in the round, pick up stitches, follow a chart for the cabled pattern, make a tubular bind-off (optional).
It includes charts of shoulder increases for each size.
Pattern: « Twigtale » de Nadia Crétin-Léchenne, available in french and in English on Ravelry in 9 sizes corresponding to a finished bust circumference from 88 to 176 cm.
Yarn: Ulysse (100% French mérinos d’Arles and Portuguese black merino woolen spun in France, 202 yards (185 m) / 50 g), knitted together with Bérénice (55% Super Kid Mohair labelled RMS, Responsible Mohair Standards (South Africa), 25 % mulberry silk (China), 20 % organic Merinos d’Arles (France) – 230 yds (210 m) / 25 g)
You will need 5 (6 – 7 – 7) 8 – 9 (10 – 11 – 11) balls of Ulysse (185 m / 50g) and 5 (5–6–7) 7–8 (9–9–10) balls of Bérénice (210 m /25 g).
This pattern can also be knitted at the same gauge in our Gilliatt: in that case you will need 4 (5 – 5 – 6) 6 – 7 (7 – 8 – 8) balls (250 m / 100g) according to your size.
«Twigtale»’s motif swatch by Nadia Crétin-Léchenne, knitted in Ulysse « poivre blanc » and Bérénice “crème” in 4mm needles
«Twigtale»’s motif swatch by Nadia Crétin-Léchenne, knitted in Ulysse « amarante» and Bérénice “badiane” with 4.5mm needles
You’ll find more ideas for combining Berenice with our carded yarns in this blog post.
« Twigtale » by Nadia Crétin-Léchenne, available in français and in english, in 9 sizes. Pictured in Ulysse “biche” and Bérénice “chocolat chaud”
Ravelry: Nadia Crétin-Léchenne
Instagram: @ncl_knits
Nadia has created numerous patterns in our yarns such as the Peeta, Ellie, Nikki or Clarice sweaters in Ulysse, the Cozy (Me), Billow, Lady Marple, Hedwige, Ferndell and Fanny cardigans or the Carrousel sweater in Gilliatt.
It’s been a pleasure to work with Nadia on this back-to-school collaboration, and I hope it will inspire you to put a beautiful, cozy just-for-you knit in your brand-new fall diary!
Photos credits: Nadia Crétin-Léchenne / De Rerum Natura