Twist Collective Ossel Dress Knitting Pattern

Twist Collective Ossel Knit Dress by Alison Green

What Is Being Made

The Ossel is a fitted knit dress designed by Alison Green for Twist Collective. This garment features a sophisticated silhouette with cable detailing and is available in nine sizes ranging from 30 ¼ inches to 54 inches bust measurement. The dress is intended to be worn with negative ease of 1 inch to positive ease of 2 inches, allowing for a customized fit. The finished length measures approximately 33 ¼ to 34 inches, making it a midi-length style suitable for various occasions.

Techniques Used

The Ossel employs several key knitting techniques to achieve its refined construction:

• Bottom-Up Construction: The dress is worked from the hem upward, allowing knitters to easily adjust the overall length by adding or subtracting complete cable pattern repeats before the decreases begin.
• Worked Flat: The garment pieces are knitted flat on straight needles rather than in the round, then seamed together for a polished finish.
• Seamed Assembly: Individual pieces are joined using seaming techniques to create the finished garment.
• Cable Patterning: Decorative cable stitches are incorporated throughout the design, particularly featured in the front and sleeve sections. The cable pattern repeats occur over 36-row sequences, providing visual interest and texture.

Stitches Used

Moss Stitch serves as a foundational stitch throughout the Ossel. This textured stitch is worked over an even number of stitches by alternating knit and purl stitches in a checkerboard pattern across rows, creating a dense, reversible fabric with subtle visual interest. The pattern instructions specify that shaping within moss stitch sections—including decreases and increases—must be worked to maintain the established stitch pattern consistency. Decrease options include k2tog and ssk for knit stitches, or ssp and p2tog for purl stitches, while increases utilize m1 for knit stitches or m1p for purl stitches.

Cable Stitches are featured prominently in the Front Cable Chart and sleeve sections. These stitches create twisted, rope-like textures by crossing groups of stitches over one another. The cable patterns are designed to complete full repeats, and knitters can modify dress length by adding or removing entire 36-row cable repeats before the decreasing section begins. Similarly, sleeve length can be adjusted by adding or subtracting multiples of 12 rows while maintaining proper cable alignment.

Materials

Yarn: The pattern calls for Valley Yarns Northampton, a 100% wool yarn. Yardage requirements range from 6 to 10 skeins depending on size, with each skein providing 247 yards (226 meters) and weighing 3 ½ ounces (100 grams). The suggested colorway is Light Grey (#05), though the pattern may be worked in alternative colors.

Needles and Tools: The Ossel requires size 8 US (5 mm) needles for the main fabric and a size 6 US (4 mm) circular needle measuring 24 inches. The use of different needle sizes allows for gauge control and proper fabric drape in specific sections of the garment.