Cold comfort; Are you ready to be swathed in head-to-toe sweater dressing.

Byline: Mark Holgate

They have box-stitched, moss-stitched, chevron-

stitched, garter-stitched, and seed-stitched. They have conjured up pointelle so delicate it looks as though it would disintegrate if you breathed on it. They have swung to the other extreme with chunky, sculptural cable patterns so gargantuan they appear to have been worked up on a pair of javelin poles, not knitting needles. Everywhere you look, it is impossible to escape. Yes, some of fashion's deftest creative talents have been busy knitting. It is hard to find an item of clothing that hasn't been knitted this fall-the whole body, if you choose, could be encased in wool, from your sweaterdress down to the cropped ankles of your knit leggings.

Knits have been elevated from support players to center stage, according to Clare Waight Keller at the venerable Scottish cashmere company Pringle. "Knitwear has become the statement piece," she says. "One of autumn's soft, voluminous cardigans can be worn in place of a coat." Opinions differ as to why all of fashion is cocooned in this new era of sweater dressing. But all agree that it is a place where fashion's twin obsessions-craft and technology-meet. The Pringle collection, for example, includes a sweater made on computerized machinery that allows it to be entirely circular, without any seams. Pringle is also offering Aran cable dresses, each of which takes craftspeople in the Scottish Borders a week to hand-knit.

Those looking for deeper meaning underneath their tunics and Aran sweaters are saying that the return to sweater dressing is based in a deep-rooted need to feel secure right now: Knitwear, they say, not only offers physical protection from the elements but can also deliver psychological protection

from the urban environment. It's surely no coincidence that Marc Jacobs chose to show vast, all-enveloping layers of knit pieces against the backdrop of Cubist cityscapes at twilight (as if all that stood between you and the dangers of the sidewalk were one fabulously beaded, fur-trimmed, zippered sweater coat). Tess Giberson, making her debut ...