In April, I released my Legendaire pullover knitting pattern (get it on Ravelry or Payhip). I still love this pattern so much, particularly the wide short turtleneck of Version 1. One of my absolutely favorite necklines—I can’t get enough of it!
Being, well, me, I immediately riffed on my own three-stripe design and knit a version this spring in two stripes.
This was knit in KnitPicks Palette, which is also a fingering weight like my pattern calls for, but a bit lighter weight than Harrisville Shetland. Palette has long been a favorite yarn of mine, and a budget-friendly wool, too. It makes for a lovely and soft Legendaire.
I loved this combo so much that I immediately started another one in stashed Palette colors. Between projects here and there, I finally finished it in November.
To swap to two colors, it was easy. I decided which I wanted to be my main color, used on the hem ribbing, cuffs, and neckline. Then after the hem ribbing, I simply started in on my second color, and alternated every other color, instead of following the chart in the pattern. For the sleeves, I figured out how many stripes my size calls for (which is 15), and worked out which color I should start the sleeve pickup with, so that I didn’t end up with the same color stripe as cuffs.
It’s worth mentioning that the turtleneck stands up just fine in Palette, but I was wearing a chunky Luxulite brooch in my yellow and green version, so it dragged it down a bit.
These batwing sleeves never fail to please me, and with my construction style for this pattern (and a future one, coming soon!) it’s sooo easy to knit them.
Much more so than the more common knitting techniques used to achieve this in the 1950s, where you cast on more and more stitches for the sleeves along with the body, leading to extremely long rows from cuff to cuff, or you knit the body sideways starting at one cuff, which changes the direction of the knitting and thus any stitch pattern.
I think Legendaire is so much fun to add color into your wardrobe (though you can even see from test knitters Maxine and Liza that it’s great in a solid too).
And if two colors are your thing instead of three, try a two-stripe one! I love mine. 😊
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