How Do Cheerful Colors, Checks, and a Child’s Sweater Come Together?
My Sister Knits has the cutest new sample in the shop! It’s the Scrappy Checkers - Baby + Child sweater, designed by Erin Guimond, published on Pom Pom Quarterly Website in May of this year. Our little sample is so cheery! This sweater pattern also comes in adult sizes, just so you know!
This design was created with worsted weight scraps in mind. Our sample uses Blue Sky Fibers Woolstok Worsted Bundle mini skeins along with a Blue Sky Fibers Woolstok Worsted background color. You can use any worsted weight yarn you like and go through your stash to see if you have any scraps that would be perfect.
The way the colorwork advice is written is not for the faint of heart but fear not because it isn’t nearly as intimidating as it looks at first glance! The thing is, you can do almost anything you want with this colorful sweater, as far as the checks go and it is all explained in detail.
There is a simple 4 stitch, 4 row pattern motif that repeats throughout the sweater. There are instructions for making it with as few as two colors or as many as six. There are eight charts but don’t let these intimidate you as they did me when I first looked at the pattern! You just have to decide how many colors you want to use and then find the chart that corresponds with that number. Not so hard after all!
Some ideas of Woolstok Worsted mini skein bundles if you don’t have scraps.
There are thorough instructions on how to create a gingham look with three colors and more charts to show ideas for other numbers of yarn colors. There are also ‘usage rate’ tables that tell what percentage of each color is used. This is handy so you can use your math skills to weigh out your scraps to see if you have enough. For instance, there’s one 5 color chart that uses 50% of the yarn required for the main color and 12% of the yarn for each of the 4 contrast colors. Sounds complicated but it’s really quite helpful. If this is daunting for you, bring everything in and we’ll figure it out. Now that I’ve slowly read through the pattern, it sounds pretty fun to make!
Erin even tells us how to design our own charts, however, that information made me want to reach for the Scotch! I’d definitely use one of the charts she made for us but the information is there if you want to go rogue and make your own.
Color inspiration for Woolstok Worsted neutral main colors if that’s what you want. You could also choose two bold colors just for fun!
In the Pattern Notes on page 6, using ladderback jacquard is mentioned for certain charts to maintain the raglan increases in a solid color. Now, I’ve heard of ladderback jacquard but up until now I had no idea what it was. What it is, is genius! I found two videos, one by Suzanne Bryan (my favorite German Short Row instructor) and one by Nimble Needles that are both well worth your time. The longer you watch each of them (they’re at least 20 minutes long) the more amazed you’re going to be. This is a brilliant technique! I kept thinking, “how do you get rid of that extra stitch?”. You’re going to have to look at both of them to figure out what in the world I’m talking about!
If you have a little child to make this for, like perhaps an almost 3 year old grandson, this sweater is a most excellent opportunity to become a more confident knitter. Now I’m wondering how much cream, green, and gold I have in my stash for a wee CSU sweater! Come in to examine our sample and remember, we are here to help!
One note of caution: reports are that this runs small so take that into consideration when you’re deciding which size to make.
Happy knitting,
