Mosaic Imps Sweater

Yoo hoo, knitters! Jeanette says: "I began this sweater in 2011, and almost frogged it, but I persevered and 4 years later it’s done.


I usually knit in the round, and this flat knitting really slowed me down! Mosaic knitting requires flat pattern pieces, done on straight needles. But I HAD to do that tessellated imp mosaic pattern!

The tessellation pattern includes both white and black imps. The imps are both right side up and upside down.

I was intrigued by Barbara Walker’s “shadow patterns” in her book “Mosaic Knitting”, and I chose to use her little black and white imps for my fabric. She was a genius.

I adapted a basic modified drop-shoulder pullover pattern, by Heather Lodinsky in Knitter’s Mag.#57, winter 1999. She named it “Woven Weekenders”, and also used a mosaic stitch pattern, but I wanted those imps. I used her pattern schematic as a base, for stitch counts and measurements.

I did corrugated ribbing (red and black) on the cuffs, bottom hem, and neckline, because the sweater needed a red color accent. The rest of the sweater is garter stitch in black and cream. The mosaic imp pattern is all slip-stitch. The sweater is heavy and warm, but not as impossibly heavy as stranded worsted-weight would have been.

Today when my husband wore it into the library, it stopped the librarian in her tracks. She was a knitter, and those imps definitely got some attention."

For more info about yarns and needles on this sweater, visit this page of Jeanette's Ravelry account