From pattern notes: “I first made this sweater more than 12 years ago. It was a great project: knit the fancy stuff in separate panels, not worrying about doing too much at a time. Then sew them together and frame the whole thing with plain sleeves. It was a relatively easy way to produce a fairly complex design.

“But how did it get its name? From the stitch patterns used. Moving from right to left across the garment front (as worn), there is the romance of courtship (in the lace), then the intertwining of marriage (in the leaves and buds), then time to nest (in the cable whose patterns remind me of a quilt), then the inevitable ‘out-of-phase’ period (in the truncated cables), then the reward of seeing it all through (in the harvest motif).

“This is not the original yarn (which has long been discontinued): in fact, I’m not even sure the yarn company still exists! But this silk tweed is a fabulous substitution.”

--Sally Melville