Once again (as for the Zephirine Cardigan), I'm about a year late in posting about one of my designs: the Prow Pullover, which appeared in the Summer 2014 issue of Interweave Knits. This pullover has a wide V-neck bordered by knitted lace, 3/4-length sleeves, and an easy, flattering A-line shape, which is created by decreases that shape the front inverted pleat into a triangle. I used a wool/cotton blend yarn which holds its shape well. Below is my original sketch from the design proposal I submitted (clearly drawing skill did not have a lot to do with the design being accepted, AND the editors made sure I knew that they did not want sleeves of different lengths!).
The focal point of the pullover is definitely the neckline. In developing the design, I started with the lace stitch pattern: it has a diamond-shaped motif, which lends itself to stacking diagonally along the neck edge, AND to having the neckline decreases worked into the lace stitch pattern. These decreases have the bonus effect of creating a nice subtle scalloping along the neck edges.
The decreases are also the reason neckline is so wide: normally I prefer to decrease every 3rd row to shape a V-neck, because I find that decreasing every 4th row creates a "V" that is too narrow, while every 2nd row creates a "V" that is too wide. (And apparently many ready-to-wear sweater makers agree with me; I took a look at my husband's Malo and Ralph Lauren V-neck pullovers, and they all had decreases every 3rd row along the front neck edges.) But I haven't yet found a lace stitch pattern into which you could incorporate decreases every 3rd row and not mess up the stitch pattern-- or a textured or cabled stitch pattern, for that matter. (I suppose I could have placed the neck decreases between the lace border and the pullover fronts, but that would have been a totally different look).
In writing up the pattern, I also had to take into account the fact that the lace pattern has a different gauge than the stockinette stitch used in the body and sleeves. But knitting the rest of the pullover is pretty simple, with garter stitch edgings at the hem and cuffs, a bit of ribbing at the back neck to help it keep its shape, and set-in sleeves. There's no side waist shaping, which makes it easy to change the length of the pullover (although you would have to take into account the fact that the front pleat decreases by 2 stitches every 6 rounds).
Incidentally, my original name for this sweater was "Espalier"; I thought the diagonals of the neck edges were reminiscent of an espaliered tree or shrub.
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