Valley Yarns Delphine Pullover Knitting Pattern

Valley Yarns Delphine Pullover

What is Being Made

The Valley Yarns Delphine Pullover is a seamless, round-yoke pullover sweater designed by Kirsten Hipsky. This hybrid raglan-style pullover features traditional Fair Isle colorwork motifs adorning the neckline, combining classic stranded knitting techniques with modern seamless construction. The garment is knit from the bottom up in the round, eliminating the need for seaming and creating a polished, professional finish.

Finished Sizes and Fit

The Delphine Pullover is available in seven finished sizes: 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, and 60 inches. The pattern shown in the sample is size 40 inches. This range accommodates a wide variety of body types and allows for customization of fit through careful size selection.

Knitting Techniques

This advanced beginner pattern employs several key knitting techniques:

• Bottom-up construction: The sweater is knit starting from the lower body and working upward toward the yoke and neckline, allowing knitters to try on the garment as it progresses and adjust length as needed.
• Seamless, in-the-round knitting: The entire pullover is worked circularly on circular needles, eliminating side seams and creating a continuous fabric with no finishing required.
• Stranded colorwork (Fair Isle): The yoke features traditional Fair Isle motifs worked with three colors held simultaneously, creating intricate patterned sections while maintaining gauge consistency across color changes.
• Raglan yoke shaping: The hybrid round-raglan yoke uses strategic decreases at marked intervals to shape the armholes and create the distinctive raglan sleeve cap.
• Ribbed edging: The lower body begins with knit-purl ribbing for 2 inches, providing elasticity and a finished appearance at the hem.

Stitches and Stitch Abbreviations

The Delphine Pullover utilizes fundamental knitting stitches combined with specialized decreasing techniques:

• Stockinette stitch (St st): The primary fabric throughout the lower body and upper sections, created by knitting all stitches on right-side rounds and purling on wrong-side rows (or knitting all rounds when worked circularly).
• Knit-purl ribbing (k1, p1): Used for the 2-inch cuff at the lower body edge to create stretch and definition.
• Decrease stitches: The pattern employs centered double decreases (CDD) and paired decreases (k2tog and ssk) to shape the yoke symmetrically. The CDD technique (slip 2 stitches as if to knit 2 together, knit 1, pass both slipped stitches over) creates a centered vertical line of decreases. The k2tog (knit 2 together) decreases to the right, while ssk (slip, slip, knit) decreases to the left, allowing for balanced shaping on either side of markers.
• Colorwork stitches: Individual color stitches (A1, B1, C1) represent single knit stitches worked in colors A, B, and C respectively, forming the Fair Isle pattern in the yoke.

Materials and Yarn Specifications

The Delphine Pullover requires Valley Yarns Amherst, a 100% Merino Wool yarn. Yardage requirements vary by size: sizes 36 through 48 inches require 9, 10, 11, and 12 skeins respectively, while larger sizes 52, 56, and 60 inches require 13, 14, and 15 skeins. Each skein of Valley Yarns Amherst contains 50 grams and 109 yards of yarn. The primary color is Balsam (color A), with single skeins each of Lake (color B) and Sweet Pea (color C) used for the Fair Isle colorwork in the yoke.

Needles and Gauge

The pattern calls for US size 8 (5.00mm) circular needles in three lengths: 16-inch, 32-inch, and 40-inch needles, plus double-pointed needles of the same size for working the neckline ribbing. Knitters should adjust needle size as needed to achieve the specified gauge.

Two distinct gauges are used in this pattern: 4