This pattern is called Papa by Junko Okamoto. It is knitted top down in one size, with wonderful flowers across the yoke.
I chose to use the De Rerum Natura – Gilliatt as the colours are perfect to be paired together. I picked up Quartz for the main colour and Dragon for the contrast.
© YAK
It starts with a lovely ribbing around the neck created by a twisted knit stitch. It goes on with a short row section and increases which quickly makes your knitting grow. Once you begin the colour work you have 360 stitches on your needles so you have to repeat the 90 stitches chart four times. I would suggest to place more stitch markers to help you visualise where you are in the chart. I found it difficult, especially at the start because there are only 8 stitches out of the ninety that are knitted in the red. These need to be counted precisely to avoid making any mistakes.
The knitting of the colour work took a lot of concentration due to the sheer length of each repeat. However after finishing some of the small flowers I began understanding how they were drawn, making it easier to follow the chart. I have made a few mistakes but I was able to improvise and blend them within the floral motif. I let myself accept the mistakes and be free to enjoy the improvisation.
© YAK
The rest of the jumper was easy to knit. There were four more short row sections to knit, but I only did three as when I tried it on for the first time, it came down to my waist and I thought it would be nice to have it slightly cropped. The sleeves were easy to pick back up and start knitting although when I followed the pattern and was about to cast off, the sleeve stopped halfway down my forearm. I was hoping for longer sleeves. So I ripped it back, added 5 rows for the first section of decreases. So now the sleeves are slightly over my wrists and hang nicely down.
I got the second sleeve done, weaved in all those loose ends and tried it on. The first thought that went through my head was that there was a lot scrunching around the colour work which I was not particularly pleased with. I was told it should flatten out when blocked. Luckily it did!
© YAK
Overall, I’m very pleased with this jumper. The Gilliatt was lovely to knit with and it is so soft and warm to wear. I particularly love the colour work. It is as if someone took a red pen and drew a field of poppies on my jumper. There is also a lovely casting off detail that is created by the knit and purl row. The slight difficulty I would say is how long it took to knit the colour work. Next time I do colour work I will catch the yarn every few stitches to help with the tension. This would have been very helpful for this project.
Until Next Time… Happy Knitting!
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Hi I’m really keen to knit this jumper but cannot get my stitch count correct – I have reached the colourwork section twice but still wrong stitch count so have pulled it all out both attempts. Any tips for helping me with my stitch count – I did look at using the Japanese short row method as I thought this was the problem. Thanks for any help.
Hi Jacqui – Elodie who knitted the jumper doesn’t work here anymore but I’ll email her to see if she had any trouble reaching the right stitch count with hers. I cannot access the pattern myself so it is a bit difficult for me to advise you without looking at the instructions.
When you cast on did you make sure you had the right stitch count to begin with? As a rule of thumb I always triple check my cast ons as I often tend to miscount my stitches.
Is there many increases in between the cast on and the colourwork section? Also what type of short row method is recommended by the pattern?