New adventures

Caroline Bawn gets to grips with the fascinating construction of her sweater

- Caroline Bawn

HAVING DYED the yarn for my ‘Coucou’ Ziggurat by Åsa Tricosa, I now needed to get to grips with its construction. Ziggurats are constructed in a different way to any other sweater I have knitted. They are of course top-down, but whereas other top-down projects are cast on and joined into a circle around the neck, Ziggurats are cast on as a straight line. Then the fun begins!

The correct size is calculated by measuring the front of your upper chest, across the front from shoulder seam to shoulder seam. This is not only to ensure a good fit, but also gives the correct number of stitches to cast on for your size.

Once you have the cast-on row, each quarter (right back shoulder, left back shoulder, left front shoulder and right front shoulder) is worked in a sequence to create the shoulder yoke sections, before being joined at the front neck. All these steps are very clearly explained, but it pays to read through the pattern first to get an idea of how the garment is constructed as it doesn’t seem to make sense at first.