Lempivaate Cabled Sweater in Novita WoollyWood - Downloadable PDF

Lempivaate Cabled Sweater in Novita WoollyWood – Pattern Summary

The Lempivaate Cabled Sweater is a beautifully structured, cable-rich pullover designed by Lea Petäjä for Novita. The pattern is available as a free downloadable PDF and is rated intermediate in difficulty, making it an excellent project for knitters who are comfortable with cables and chart reading and are ready to take their skills to the next level. The finished sweater features a classic silhouette with medium-length sleeves, a ribbed hem, and an intricate cabled front panel that gives the garment its signature character and name — Lempivaate, meaning "favourite garment" in Finnish.

What Is Being Made

This pattern produces a cabled pullover sweater with medium sleeves, suitable for a wide range of sizes. The completed garment is designed with the following finished dimensions:

• Body circumference: 92(100)108(116)124(132) cm / 36¼(39¼)42½(45¾)48¾(52) in
• Length: 73(75)77(79)81(83) cm / 28¾(29½)30¼(31)32(32¾) in
• Inner sleeve length: 48(49)50(51)51(52) cm / 19(19¼)19¾(20)20(20½) in

Sizes range from XS/S through 3XL, making this an inclusive pattern that accommodates a broad spectrum of body types. The sweater is worked in pieces and the construction involves separate front, back, and sleeve sections that are seamed together upon finishing.

Yarn and Materials

The recommended yarn is Novita WoollyWood, a DK weight yarn from the Finnish brand Novita. The colourway used in the sample shown is (587) Cranberry, a rich, warm red tone that beautifully highlights the texture of the cable work. The yarn requirements range from 800 g for XS/S up to 1050 g for 3XL, reflecting the generous, wearable proportions of the finished sweater.

Novita WoollyWood is a yarn that combines natural wool with other fibres, offering warmth, stitch definition, and a pleasant hand feel — all qualities that make it particularly well suited to cable knitting, where crisp stitch definition is essential for the cables to stand out clearly against the background fabric.

The pattern calls for two sizes of knitting needles: a smaller set used for the ribbing sections and a larger set used for the main body and cable pattern. Specific needle sizes are referenced within the full pattern PDF.

Techniques Used

The Lempivaate Cabled Sweater employs a range of knitting techniques that place it firmly in the intermediate skill category. Knitters working this pattern should be comfortable with the following:

• Ribbing: The lower body and cuffs begin with a 12 cm ribbing section worked on smaller needles, starting on the wrong side with a purl stitch. This creates a neat, elastic border that frames the garment.
• Needle switching: After completing the ribbing, knitters switch to larger needles to begin the main body, a common technique used to manage gauge differences between ribbed and stockinette or textured sections.
• Even increases: At the transition from ribbing to the main body, 6 stitches are increased evenly across a right-side row, shaping the fabric to accommodate the cable panels.
• Chart reading: The cable and texture pattern is worked from a chart, beginning on row 1 (a wrong-side row). Knitters must be able to read both right-side and wrong-side chart rows accurately.
• Cable knitting: The heart of this pattern lies in its cable sections. Two distinct cable panels are used — Cable Section A (14 stitches) and Cable Section B (13 stitches) — arranged symmetrically across the front of the sweater. Cables are created by temporarily placing stitches on a cable needle and crossing them over one another, producing the characteristic twisted rope or braid effect.
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