It’s become a happy habit every October to release a new design (or two!) in the leadup to the NY Sheep and Wool Festival. This year is no exception and it’s one of my favorite designs yet. This is the Ever Upward Pullover.
You might recall that, last October, I released the Riverbank Vest, a deep navy cabled vest with a shawl collar that featured Jill Draper’s Kingston yarn. I enjoyed working with the yarn so much that I picked up another quantity to create this design. Kingston is a 3-ply tweed yarn that Jill describes as “round and bouncy.” For my part, what I love about this yarn is, frankly, everything. The way it knits up into a durable, warm fabric that doesn’t pill. The crisp definition it lends to cables. The 100% Targhee wool that is sourced directly from the Finger Lakes region of New York State. The complexity of the colors that Jill achieves in her dyeing studio, also in New York State.
This time, I chose the “Lucas Avenue” colorway, an almost impossibly beautiful blend of reds, oranges, and yellows with an occasional flash of blue, purple, or white.
To balance all of the cable patterning, I kept the shape of the pullover simple: no waist shaping, an oversized profile, a modified dropped shoulder shape, and a cozy crewneck.
Don’t let all of those cables fool you, though. They’re deceptively straightforward and, after a few repeats, become intuitive as you knit. And to keep the knitting fun, I added a simple twisted cable to highlight the shoulder and a faux side seam that echoes the vertical lines of the cables.
Not ignoring the sleeves, I included a single cable motif traveling down the arm while keeping the rest of the sleeve easy to wear (and fast to knit!) in reverse stockinette stitch. The sleeves seemed to be a fun spot for my test knitters to experiment, as one test knitter removed that cable in favor of having plain sleeves, and another knitter shortened her sleeves to a flattering bracelet length.
The result is a wardrobe piece that’s tailor-made for “sweater weather!” Because of the easy shape, you can layer Ever Upward over your favorite shirts, blouses, and jeans, or (in my case), over one of my favorite summer dresses that shares flashes of the same rust-colored hue.
The fully-edited pattern features 10 different sizes covering a range of finished chest circumferences between 37 and 73 inches. The body is knit in the round from the bottom up to the armholes. The front and back are each knit flat and then seamed at the shoulders. Stitches are picked up around each armhole to work the sleeves in the round down to the cuff. The neckband and sleeve cuffs include professional (and optional) tubular edges.
The state motto of New York, where I’ve spent most of my life, is “Excelsior,” which means “ever upward.” So it felt like an apt name for a design that was dreamed up in NY, using yarn from sheep living in NY, and dyed by an artist also living in NY. And a worthwhile reminder to all of us to continue striving upward, not just for ourselves, but for one another too.
You can find the Ever Upward pullover pattern here at DCD or here on Ravelry.
Let’s move on to the fun Rhinebeck sale news. From now until midnight EDT on Monday 10/20/2025, ALL of my self-published patterns, including Ever Upward, are 25% off with NO code needed!
And if you’re curious, here’s just a sampling of the 70+ other designs that are included in the sale:
Happy knitting!
xoxo Danielle
daniellechalson.com 