A magical sweater

The day is here! I'm so excited to share this news with you: my collaboration with Spincycles yarns turned into something very magical, and now there is a pattern for it! Meet A Thousand and One Suns.

I'm so thankful to Spincycle yarns for trusting me to design with their gorgeous skeins! Having seen Nocturne, I knew I wanted to use that as the background colour to just as powerful and highly contrasting colourwork pattern.

Once again, I drew inspiration from my Latvian heritage and the most powerful sign in our mythology, the Sun. I started with an idea to include as many signs and symbols for the Sun as possible, hoping to show the Sun's power and its many faces, and within the first few chart squares, I got into the flow, and I don't remember the rest. It's like the chart drew itself; it just happened. That is the first reason for it being magical.

The second was the actual knitting of the sweater. This project completely took me over; I don't think I did anything else until I had completed the whole yoke, almost as if it possessed me. Very powerful indeed.

Now I feel like I have to explain the name. The magical feeling prompted me to look for a magical name for this pattern. It came quickly in Latvian as our old tales use a magic number "Trejdeviņas", which can mean either 3*9, 999, "very many" or "a vast amount", depending on context. Hence, the Latvian title is "Trejdeviņas Saules". But I hope you will agree that the English translation "Very many Suns" sounds anything but magical :)) The closest thing to a fictional number I could find was in the title of the book of Middle Eastern folk tales "A thousand and one nights". I think it sort of fits the concept I'm after, so there you have it: A Thousand and One Suns.

I'm absolutely in love with the result, I usually find it hard to say many positive things about my work, but this outcome has me filled with butterflies. I will let the photos speak for themselves.

I got similar feedback from my test knitters, who I have to thank from the bottom of my heart; your contribution has been outstanding, and I am forever grateful for all the feedback! Because of you, I can share this pattern with the rest of the world with confidence.

It is graded for bust sizes 70-150cm / 28-60" and intended to wear with 5-15 cm / 2-6" positive ease around the bust.

If you would like to make one yourself, use code SAULES to get a 20% discount at the checkout until the 29th of August (23:59 BST). And don't forget to tag your photos with #athousandandonesuns or #trejdeviņassaules on social media; I cannot wait to see your colour combinations!