428 Bordeaux Pullover - Jumper Knitting Pattern for Women in Valley Yarns 2/10 Merino Tencel

428 Bordeaux Pullover – Seamless Top-Down Cable Knitting Pattern for Women

The 428 Bordeaux Pullover is a women's pullover sweater knitting pattern designed by Kirsten Hipsky and published under the Valley Yarns brand. It is worked seamlessly from the top down in the round, making it an elegant and construction-friendly project for knitters who prefer to minimize seaming and try on their work as they go. The pattern is available as a downloadable PDF and is rated intermediate in difficulty, making it well suited to knitters who are comfortable with circular knitting and basic cable techniques but are ready to develop those skills further.

What Is Being Made

The finished object is a classic women's pullover jumper featuring an all-over or panel cable texture worked across both the front and back of the body. The yoke is shaped with raglan-style increases that simultaneously build the sleeve caps and body panels from the very first round, creating a smooth, integrated fit without the need for set-in seam construction. The result is a sophisticated, textured sweater with a timeless aesthetic that suits the rich, slightly formal character implied by its name, Bordeaux.

Construction Method and Techniques

The 428 Bordeaux Pullover uses several notable construction techniques that define its structure and workflow:

• Top-down construction: The sweater begins at the neckline, where 80 stitches are cast on and immediately joined in the round. The yoke is divided from the first round into four sections — front, back, and two sleeves — each separated by stitch markers.
• Seamless, worked in the round: Because the entire garment is knitted in the round from the outset, there are no seams to sew at the shoulders or sides. This produces a cleaner finish and allows for easy length adjustments.
• Raglan yoke shaping with paired increases: Each right-side round incorporates m1L (make 1 left) and m1R (make 1 right) increases placed one stitch in from each marker. These mirror-image increases create the characteristic diagonal raglan lines while keeping the stitch count growing evenly across all four sections simultaneously.
• Cables integrated into the yoke shaping: Rather than waiting until the body to introduce cables, the pattern begins incorporating cable crossings as early as Round 4 of the yoke, weaving the texture into the increase rounds themselves. This requires careful attention to stitch counts as the yoke grows.

Stitches and Cable Pattern

The textural character of the Bordeaux Pullover comes from a repeating Cable Pattern worked over a multiple of 8 stitches. The pattern defines two primary cable crossings:

• BC (Back Cross): Slip 2 stitches to a cable needle and hold to the back, knit 2, then knit 2 from the cable needle. This produces a right-leaning 4-stitch cable cross.
• FC (Front Cross): Slip 2 stitches to a cable needle and hold to the front, knit 2, then knit 2 from the cable needle. This produces a left-leaning 4-stitch cable cross.

These two crossings alternate within the cable repeat to create a traveling or braided cable effect. The full 16-round cable repeat is structured as follows:

• Round 1: Work FC cross, then knit 4; repeat across the cable section.
• Rounds 2–7: Knit all stitches (rest rounds that allow the cable twist to settle and show clearly).
• Round 8: Work BC cross, then knit 4; repeat across.
• Rounds 9–16: Knit all stitches.

The long stretches of plain knitting between crossings mean that the cable is not overly demanding round by round, but the knitter must track position within the 16-round repeat consistently. The m1L and m1R increase stitches are also defined explicitly in the pattern, ensuring precise directional shaping that keeps the fabric smooth at the raglan lines.

Materials – Yarn and Needles

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