SlipKnot No. 128, Summer 2010: A Complete Guide to This Beloved Knitting Pattern

There are certain knitting patterns that feel like a turning point. You pick them up, work through the first few rows, and realize you’ve stumbled onto something that will live in your project queue for years, maybe forever. SlipKnot No. 128 from the Summer 2010 issue is exactly that kind of pattern. Whether you’re new to the publication or have been following it since its earliest issues, this particular design represents everything that made that era of independent knitting publishing so exciting — inventive construction, wearable silhouettes, and a technical depth that rewards careful reading.

In this post, we’re going to take a thorough look at SlipKnot No. 128 from Summer 2010. We’ll cover the design’s background, the skills it asks of you, the yarn choices that work best, modifications you might want to consider, and how to approach the pattern if you’re coming to it fresh. If you’ve been searching for this pattern or are trying to decide whether it belongs in your queue, this guide is for you.

What Was SlipKnot Magazine?

Before diving into the specifics of No. 128, it’s worth spending a moment on the publication itself. SlipKnot was an independent knitting magazine that attracted a devoted readership by consistently publishing designs that sat at the intersection of craftsmanship and accessibility. Unlike some of the glossier, advertising-heavy publications of the same era, SlipKnot kept its focus tightly on the knitting. The photography was clean. The tech editing was thorough. And the designers it featured were often people working at the edges of what was considered mainstream knitwear at the time.

The Summer 2010 issue landed at an interesting moment in the knitting world. Ravelry had been around for a few years by then and had already begun to transform how knitters discovered, tracked, and discussed patterns. Social knitting was changing the way designers received feedback and built audiences. At the same time, the tactile pleasure of a physical magazine, the act of flipping through pages and dog-earing a design you wanted to return to, hadn’t lost its hold on the community. The Summer 2010 issue of SlipKnot captured that transition beautifully, offering a mix of techniques that spoke to traditional craftspeople and the newer wave of technically adventurous knitters who were sharing their work online.

No. 128 was, by most accounts, the standout piece from that issue. It generated considerable discussion at the time and has continued to be rediscovered by knitters looking for something with a bit more dimension than the average pattern.

The Design at a Glance

SlipKnot No. 128 is a fitted pullover with a distinctive textured body achieved through a combination of slip-stitch colorwork and traveling cables. The design uses two contrasting colors in the body — one dominant, one accent — and a single color for the sleeves, which creates a visual break that makes the piece feel more complex than its construction actually demands.

The silhouette is relaxed but intentional. There’s a slight A-line flare from the underarm to the hem, which the pattern achieves through carefully placed increases along the side seams. The neckline is a simple ribbed crew, low enough to be comfortable for everyday wear but not so deep that it reads as casual. The cuffs mirror the neckline ribbing, tying the piece together in a way that feels considered.

What really sets No. 128 apart is the slip-stitch pattern in the body. Slip-stitch colorwork has a reputation for being approachable — you’re only ever working with one color per row — but it can produce results that look far more involved than the technique suggests. The specific stitch pattern used in No. 128 creates a woven, almost basketweave-adjacent texture that catches the light differently depending on the yarn weight and fiber content you choose. In a wool-silk blend, it shimmers. In a round, worsted-spun wool, it looks architectural.

Skills and Techniques Required

This pattern is rated as intermediate, which is a fair designation. If you’ve knitted a sweater before and have done some colorwork — even just simple stripes — you’re in good shape. Here’s a breakdown of what the pattern requires.

Slip-stitch colorwork. The body pattern is worked flat in two colors. You’ll need to be comfortable carrying yarn loosely and managing the float on the wrong side. The floats in this pattern are short enough that they rarely cause puckering issues, but tension is important. Swatch carefully and pay attention to how your fabric behaves when you block it.

Basic cable techniques. The traveling cables along the side panels are worked with a cable needle and aren’t especially complex. They cross every six rows, giving you plenty of knitting time between each cable turn. If you’ve worked a simple 2×2 cable before, the cables in No. 128 will feel manageable.

Working in the round versus flat. The body is worked flat to the underarms, at which point you join in the round for the yoke. This hybrid approach is common in top-down and hybrid construction but can catch knitters off guard if they’re expecting to work entirely one way or the other. Keep a sticky note at your pattern page marking the join point.

Seaming. The sleeves are knitted flat and then set in. The pattern provides clear instructions for the set-in seam, but you’ll want to be comfortable with mattress stitch or a similar invisible seaming technique to get a clean result.

Gauge. The pattern specifies 22 stitches and 28 rows over 4 inches in stockinette on US 7 needles. This is a fairly standard worsted gauge, and many knitters will find that their default needle size for worsted-weight yarn lands close to this. That said, the slip-stitch section has a naturally tighter row gauge than plain stockinette, so the pattern includes a separate gauge swatch recommendation for the textured body. Don’t skip the second swatch.

Yarn Selection

The original sample for No. 128 was knitted in a British wool from a small farm producer — a two-ply worsted with good stitch definition and enough body to hold the cable and slip-stitch structure without going limp. That specific yarn is no longer widely available, but the qualities it brought to the design are easy to find in contemporary alternatives.

What you’re looking for is a yarn with good stitch definition, which generally means a tightly plied, round construction. Loosely spun singles and fluffy halo yarns like mohair or alpaca blends will blur the textured pattern in the body and make the cables recede. For No. 128, definition is everything.

Some yarns that work beautifully with this pattern:

Cascade 220 is a perennial recommendation for a reason. It’s affordable, widely available, comes in hundreds of colors, and has exactly the structure this pattern needs. The stitch definition is excellent, it blocks well, and the two-color combinations possible with its full range are almost limitless.

Quince & Co. Lark is a step up in price and quality. It’s a single-ply American wool that is surprisingly firm in construction, giving it better stitch definition than most singles. The color palette skews toward soft, natural tones, which suits No. 128 particularly well if you’re planning a muted, sophisticated colorway.

Brooklyn Tweed Shelter is another strong choice if you want the rustic, woolen-spun look. It will soften the stitch definition slightly compared to worsted-spun options, but it adds wonderful depth of color and a lovely halo that doesn’t overwhelm the texture.

For the accent color, consider going slightly lighter in value rather than picking a color that’s too close to your main color. The slip-stitch pattern depends on visual contrast to read clearly, and if your two colors are too similar in brightness or saturation, the effect will flatten out.

Sizing and Fit

The Summer 2010 issue offered No. 128 in six sizes, ranging from a 32-inch to a 52-inch finished chest circumference, with 2 to 3 inches of positive ease built into each size. This is generous for a fitted pullover, but it works. The A-line shaping means the extra room falls below the bust, giving the piece a relaxed, lived-in quality while still reading as fitted through the shoulders and chest.

One piece of advice that comes up consistently among knitters who have made this pattern: size down if you’re between sizes. The positive ease is on the generous side, and several knitters have reported that going one size smaller than they’d normally choose gave them a cleaner result through the yoke. As always, measure your actual gauge swatch and use the finished measurements in the pattern rather than relying on the schematic alone.

The sleeve length is easily adjustable. The pattern works the sleeve cap and then adds length below it, which makes it simple to add or remove length at the cuff without affecting the rest of the construction. A note of caution: if you lengthen the sleeves, you’ll need additional yarn, so factor that into your purchase.

Colorway Ideas

Half the fun of a two-color pattern is choosing the combination, and No. 128 rewards thoughtfulness here. The original sample used a deep teal as the dominant color and a warm cream as the accent, which gave the piece a nautical quality that felt fresh in the summer of 2010 and still reads cleanly today.

Some directions you might consider:

A near-neutral dominant — charcoal, navy, or forest green — paired with a warm off-white or natural ecru reads as classic and professional. This is the version you’d reach for first when the weather turns.

A more unexpected pairing, like dusty rose and slate blue, gives the pattern a modern editorial quality. The texture becomes the focus when both colors feel intentional rather than simply contrasting.

For a bolder statement, high-contrast combinations like black and bright mustard or dark burgundy and bright rust play up the graphic nature of the slip-stitch pattern. These tend to photograph beautifully but can feel more committed in person, so hold the skeins together before you buy.

Common Modifications

Knitters who have worked No. 128 over the years have developed a small library of common modifications worth knowing about.

Lengthening the body. Several knitters add two to four inches of plain stockinette below the textured section before joining the hem ribbing. This creates a tunic-length version that works well over leggings or with straight-leg trousers. If you do this, work the side-seam increases across the added length as well to maintain the A-line silhouette.

Adjusting the neckline. A small number of knitters have rewritten the neck pickup and worked the collar as a turtleneck or cowl neck instead of the ribbed crew. This works but requires picking up additional stitches along the shoulder join, which can be fiddly. If you want a longer neck, the cleaner approach is to work a separate cowl and wear it with the sweater.

Omitting the cables. The traveling cables in the side panel are lovely but not essential to the overall design. If cables aren’t your thing or you want a simpler project, working the side panels in plain stockinette gives you a cleaner, slightly more modern silhouette. You’ll need to adjust your stitch count slightly since the cables pull in the fabric, so add two to three stitches per side panel to compensate.

Working the sleeves in a contrast color. Some knitters reverse the magazine’s design by working the body in the accent color and the sleeves in the dominant color, or by working the sleeves in a third, coordinating color entirely. All of these approaches work, and the contrast sleeve in particular turns the design into something that reads as more explicitly colorwork-focused.

Working Through the Pattern

A few practical notes for knitters who are about to cast on.

Read the entire pattern before you begin. This sounds obvious, but No. 128 has a few moments where the instructions for one section depend on decisions you make in an earlier section, particularly around the yoke shaping and the cable placement. Understanding the full arc of the construction before you pick up your needles will save you from frogging later.

Mark your cable rows. The cable crosses happen every six rows, and in the middle of a project when you’re also managing the slip-stitch colorwork, it’s easy to lose track. A simple row counter or a sticky note with a tally mark system is enough.

Block your swatch aggressively. The slip-stitch fabric can feel stiff and slightly puckered off the needles but opens up beautifully when blocked. Your pre-block gauge swatch will almost certainly differ from your post-block swatch, and since the whole garment will be blocked at the end, you want to use the post-block measurements to determine your size.

Don’t skip the selvage stitches. The pattern calls for one selvage stitch on each side of the flat sections, and these are specifically designed to make the eventual seaming clean. Dropping them will make your seams messier and harder to execute.

Why This Pattern Still Resonates

More than a decade after its original publication, SlipKnot No. 128 remains a pattern worth seeking out. Part of that is technical — it’s a genuinely well-engineered design with clear instructions and a construction logic that makes sense from start to finish. But part of it is something less tangible. The pattern asks you to engage with your knitting in a way that feels like a conversation. The slip-stitch rows have a rhythm to them. The cables give you a milestone to work toward. The gradual shaping of the body keeps you honest about your gauge over the life of the project.

It also occupies a satisfying middle ground in terms of difficulty. It’s challenging enough that finishing it feels like an accomplishment. It’s accessible enough that the process is enjoyable rather than frustrating. For knitters who are ready to move beyond simple stockinette projects but aren’t yet ready for something like steeked colorwork or complex lace, it’s an ideal next step.

If you can get your hands on the Summer 2010 issue of SlipKnot, No. 128 is worth every effort. And if you’ve already made it — if this pattern is sitting in your finished objects folder or hanging in your closet right now — then you already know exactly what all of this is about.

Cast on. You’ll be glad you did.