I love looking to history and heritage for inspiration. This pattern is inspired by extant ceramics and hanfu (clothing) from the Ming Dynasty, taking cues from the floral scrolls decorating blue-and-white porcelain and the silhouette of the jiaoling aoqun (cross-collared jacket with skirt).

Although hanfu was historically made from woven fabrics seamed together, this sweater boasts a seamless knitted construction. Nonetheless, I’ve incorporated many features of hanfu in this design — dolman sleeves, curved underarms, continuous grain direction, a curved hem, a left-over-right collar, asymmetric fronts, and an inner collar that doesn’t extend all the way to the side seam. There are also bits of inspiration throughout — faux seams where real ones existed historically, a stockinette band that emulates the huling (collar protector), and double-knit fabric to emulate hems. If I were to classify this garment, it would be hanyuansu (clothing with Han elements) inspired by Ming Dynasty jiaoling shan (unlined shirt) with jianxiu(tapered sleeves).

This sweater is constructed top-down, using a variety of techniques: provisional cast-on, double-knitting, cables, crocheted bobbles, 3-needle bind-off, tubular bind-off, and embroidery. Don’t let that intimidate you, though — there are huge expanses of stockinette stitch to allow for fairly mindless knitting, and it’s worked up quickly in a bulky-weight yarn.

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