The repeated, almost scale-like, motif featured throughout the body of this pullover is feminine and romantic, with a hint of the unconventional and adventurous, calling to mind a certain little mermaid whose world captured my imagination as a small girl. The texture appears intricate, but is simple to create using smocking stitch and works beautifully to showcase the variation found in hand-dyed yarns. With no shaping through the body, the smocking motif also helps provide subtle shaping in all the right places.

The body of the pullover is knit from the bottom up, seamlessly to the armholes, at which time the front and back are separated and worked flat in reverse stockinette stitch. The shoulders are then seamed together. The set-in sleeves are picked up from the armhole and worked in reverse stockinette from the top-down using short rows to shape the sleeve cap.

Materials

• 3.5 mm (US 4) 32” / 81 cm circular (or size required to meet gauge)
• 3.5 mm DPNS (or size required to meet gauge)
• Stitch holders or scrap yarn
• Stitch marker
• Tapestry needle

Yarn

3 (3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5) skeins of Madelinetosh tosh merino light (100% superwash merino wool, pictured in colorway Cathedral) or approximately 1020 (1140, 1270, 1400, 1520, 1650, 1770) m / 1115 (1247, 1389, 1531, 1662, 1804, 1936) yds of equivalent fingering weight yarn.

Gauge

24 sts x 32 rows = 4 inches in smocking and stockinette stitch after blocking

Be sure to block gauge swatch! Due to the ribbing nature of the smocking stitch pattern, it will pull in a great deal before blocking and appear much smaller width-wise (my gauge in the smocking stitch was roughly 8 sts/inch before blocking). With careful blocking, you should be able to stretch smocking stitch to meet recommended gauge.

Sizes

32 (36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56) inches at full bust to be worn on bust size 30 (34, 38, 42, 46, 50, 54) inches.
Sweater is intended to be worn with 0-2 inches of positive ease at bust.

Pattern Difficulty

Intermediate

Skills Required

knitting in the round, purl, knit through back loop (twisted stitches), ribbing, short rows, picking up stitches, basic decreasing