Norma is a bottom-up sweater with a circular yoke of Gotland rose available in 12 sizes..Knit with Brooklyn Tweed Arbor I’ve LOVED this sweater.

I have officially worn this sweater for four seasons now. I knit it in the summer and loved to wear it in the evenings over dresses, I wore it into the fall (don’t you just love fall roses, when the blossoms are extra large and summer holds on until the first frost). I wore it all winter. I love to put flowers in my windowsill and this cardigan is a wearable version of that, no matter how much it snows, there are still flowers in my life. And finally I’ve been wearing it late winter/early spring, when March has us yearning for spring, like Charles Dickens describes so well, “It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”

This sweater is named after my Grandma, Norma Olsen Hansen. My grandma loved roses. She lived in a Victorian house, built by my great grandpa for his bride in 1900. It was my grandpa’s childhood home. This lovely victorian house was surrounded horse chestnut trees, and irrigation ditch, cherry trees, apple trees, lilacs, bridal wreath, snowball bushes, and even a tulip tree that my great-grandfather planted from seeds that he carried from England. The vegetable garden to the north of the house, feed our entire family during the summer and through the winter. My grandparents home was in Cache Valley, where the winters are long and cold and not hospitable to growing roses. But my grandma loved roses, so she had a small rose garden. Year after year, she tended her roses, covered them with straw so they would survive the winter. Each spring when they returned, my Grandma would rejoice. And if they didn’t make it, she would replant the rose with a new, and hopefully hardier variety.
Every time I visited my Grandma’s house in the summer she would have a rose in her front room, and though the yard was full of other flowers, we’d rush out to the garden to see her rose garden. They were her pride and joy, and once, when times were tough, and my grandparents feared they would have to move from the farm to the city, my grandma would console herself with the thought that maybe she could grow roses in Salt Lake City. I live in Salt Lake City now, and I miss my grandma and her house, but I have surrounded my home with roses. They remind me of my grandma, taught me so much and made her corner of the world a beautiful place, and always looked on the bright side.

I love this design and I am super excited to share with you what I am calling the Scandiwork button band. It’s a beautiful way to finish a horizontal button band. I think you will want to use this technique on all your horizontal button bands.

The Steek for Norma is crocheted and sewn. I wanted to have a crochet edge to cover the steek stitches, but a crochet edge will; only secure 2 strands of yarn, and Norma often has 3, so I crocheted the steek and secured it with a machine stitch.

The buttons I found for this sweater are antiques. I hope you find lovely antique buttons for your Norma sweater.

Sizes
1,2,3 (pictured), 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Finished measurements Chest: 30 (32½, 35, 37½, 40, 41¾ ,44 ½, 48, 50¾, 52¾, 55½, 58½) inches
Sleeve length: 17½ (17½, 18, 18½, 19, 19, 20, 20, 20, 21, 21, 21) inches
Body length: 14 (15, 15½, 15¾, 16, 17, 18, 18, 19, 19, 20, 20) inches
Yoke: 8 (8¼, 8½, 8½, 8½, 8¾, 9, 9¼, 9½, 10¼, 10½ ,11½) inches

Yarn
Brooklyn Tweed Arbor 145 yards per 50 g skein American Targhee Wool.
Main color: Degas 350 (350, 400, 450, 450, 500, 550, 600, 650, 700, 750) grams.
Contrasting Color A: Mesa 50 (50, 50, 50, 50, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 150, 150) grams.
Contrasting Color B: Parka 50 (50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50) grams

Needles
U.S. Size 5 and 7 32-inch circular needles. U.S. size 5 double-point needles. Size 7 double-pointed needles and 16-inch circular needle (Or size needed to obtain gauge)

Notions
Tapestry needle
Crochet hook
7 – ¾ inch diameter buttons (or more if you’d like).

Gauge and swatch
20 stitches = 4 inches or 10 cm on larger needles.
Please swatch in the round to determine needle size.
Note: Swatch in both one color and in colorwork. You may need to knit the single-color part of the sweater with a smaller needle than the colorwork section. The gauge is the same throughout the sweater.

Skills used in making Norma
Knitting in the round
K2p2
Backward loop
Knitting with DPNs for the sleeves
Stranded colorwork with 2 colors
13 rows of stranded colorwork with 3 colors (it’s so worth it)
Catching floats with 2 colors
Catching floats with 3 colors
Steek cutting and securing with sewing and crochet
Scandiwork Button band
Circular yoke
Knit bottom up
Single crochet
working small circumferences in the round
Kitschner stitch