HULDRA: Build Your Own Sweater

A year ago I suddenly felt very strong trying my hand in designing crochet garments. I was (and still am) under impression of beautiful round yoked knitting sweaters. I loved the look of intricate colourworks. And I thought it would be so great to create something similar in crochet. Nearly a year ago I got a plan to build up a small collection of seamless top-down crochet sweaters. And Esja sweater was my first design. I am so thankful for your support and trust, and I am blown away with how many Esja’s have popped up in my social media feed. And today I would like to introduce HULDRA!

Add HULDRA sweater to your Ravelry Queue

HULDRA Sweater pattern is available on Ravelry HERE and Etsy HERE with 30% discount through Monday, February 25th, 2019. The discount was already applied to price and no codes are needed. After this date the pattern will be listed at a regular price.

Huldra is a top-down seamless sweater with easily adjusted length of the body and sleeves. It was designed as an oversized garment with 10-20cm/4-8” positive ease on the body and fitted sleeves.

Sleeves and the body are finished with cuffs and hem which can be omitted if you would like to keep your sweater simple and with main accent on the textured yoke.

Round yoke is crocheted with textured stitches. You will only work with one color at a time, and the technique is not tricky at all. In fact, only usual crochet stitches are used in Huldra sweater. And a heavy photo-tutorial in the end of the pattern will help you to see placement of all stitches.

Huldra Sweater comes in eight (8!) sizes: XS (S, M, L, XL, 2X, 3X, 4X) with finished bust circumference: 92.5 (101, 109.5, 115.5, 122, 136.8, 149.5, 162) cm/ 36.4 (39.8, 43, 45.5, 48, 54, 58.8, 63.8) in.

To choose the right size you should measure your actual bust, add 10-20cm/4-8” (depending on how roomy you want your sweater to be) and choose closest number from listed above.

I made two samples for myself. One of them is with long sleeves and wide cuffs. I chose Our Tribe yarn by Scheepjes in three colors: silver grey, dark grey and black (you can always stay with two colors to keep the patterning less busy). In the pictures below you can see this sweater on me. I normally wear S size, but this sweater is M, and I have lots of space in the lower body.

Approx. yarn amounts for Our Tribe yarn are:

~ Yarn A: Motivate 983 x 1 (1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2) balls
~ Yarn B: Trust 982 x 1 (2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3) balls
~ Yarn C: Blackberry Black 881 x 3 (3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5) balls

And for my second sleeveless top (LOVE it so much) I picked Ombre Whirl 562 Petrol Please Me and combined it with Whirlette 865 Chewy. Isn’t this gradient lovely?!

This top is S size and I have just a little bit of positive ease. I only needed two cakes (one Whirl and one Whirlette) for mine, but for larger sizes you’ll obviously need more yarn.

Our Tribe, Whirl and Whirlettes are available for purchase in your local Scheepjes stores, or via online retailers:

Wool Warehouse*, Black Sheep Wools*, Deramores* (all in UK with international shipping)
Caro’s Atelier* (NL and Europe)
Taemombo* (CA&US), Knotty House* (CA)

For a sleeveless "whirly" version of Huldra yarn estimates are:

1 (1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2) cakes of same Whirl, and
1 (1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2) cakes of same Whirlette.

Please, note (!!!), that these are just estimates, and if your crochet style and gauge differ, you might need more yarn (for example, you might need 2 Whirlettes for size L).

Whirlette was used as Yarn A. And for Yarns B and C I used different tails (outside and inside) of the same Whirl.

So the yoke was started with Whirlette, then contrasting Whirl was added as Yarn B, and then opposite tail of Whirl was used as Yarn C. If you need 2 cakes of Whirl, you’ll be using them both at the same time, changing between cakes on every round – for one long gradient. And then Whirlette will be used again for the hem.

HULDRA sweater pattern was tested in all sizes, and I am sending many thanks to lovely ladies who helped me with polishing instructions. Here are just several examples (check all Huldra projects HERE):

1. Loele Van Den Bergh combined dark Whirlette with Our Tribe yarn and made a playful sweater for her beautiful daughter in law
2. Sandra Veneman chose tone-on-tone colors for her lovely Huldra
3. Sarah Fabbri was "whirling"
4. Esther Schippers decided for ¾ sleeves and longer body to turn her sweater into a tunic
5. Elizabeth Kalka made a summer top with Whirlettes for herself.

This blog post contains lots of pictures, and I am very excited about them. My friend Vitali Frozen helped me with photography. And I would like to use this opportunity to thank him. Vitali specializes in wedding and portrait photography, he is currently living in Poland and is travelling around Europe. If you are looking for a photographer, I can highly recommend him. He is professional with a perfect eye, very modest, friendly and easy-going. You can take a peek at his work HERE.

And just a reminding, that HULDRA Sweater pattern is available on Ravelry HERE and Etsy HERE with 30% discount through Monday, February 25th, 2019. The discount was already applied to price and no codes are needed. After this date the pattern will be listed at a regular price.

I am super excited about Huldra, and I hope you like it, too! :)

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