Lunaberry designed by Rachel Brockman. Available to buy on Ravelry.
It's Christmas time!
Any maker will tell you you must start early with your festive projects. Although nearly every crafter will still be frantically making on Christmas Eve. 😆
Christmas jumper wearing starts way before Christmas Eve so you need to plan ahead.
This little jumper is called Lunaberry. Designed by Rachel Brockman, it's available to buy on Ravelry. The pattern has sizes from 6 months to 12 years.
It uses an aran weight yarn. I used King Cole Wool Aran in 3 classic festive shades - Cranberry, Cream and Sage.
Wool Aran is 100% wool. It softens on washing (and it is machine washable) and works so well in colourwork. The stitches relax and snuggle up against each other making a smooth fabric, giving a neat finish.
The sweater is knitted in the round from the top down. You start with a mistake rib before working the stranded colourwork yoke. The stranded colourwork is charted. It's a decent sized chart in bold red, white and green colours.
Whilst working the yoke you also increase, creating more and more stitches.
Eventually you will separate the stitches into sleeves and body stitches by slipping the sleeve stitches on to a spare piece of yarn or holder.
Then you work round and round on the body to the bottom of the jumper, adding some more colourwork and ending with mistake rib.
You then work the sleeves, round and round, adding some holly motifs and rib to the cuffs.
Once you cast off the second sleeve, just weave in your ends and you're finished! There's no picking up stitches or sewing up. There's also no short row shaping.
I think this is a good project for a beginner in top down knitting and/or stranded colourwork.
There will be a few new techniques but nothing too overwhelming, especially as you're making a small baby or child size.
First up, using the right needles. The pattern gives gauge 'in the round' and for two stitch patterns - stocking stitch and stranded colourwork.
Some people knit a bit tighter when doing stranded colourwork as you strand the unused colours along the back of your knitting. The designer recommends using a larger needle for these sections.
I did not as I have a very loose knitting action. However, I think I would have benefited from using a larger needle when doing the colourwork on the cuffs. I feel it pulls in a little bit. This may be because it's a much narrower circumference. But more on that later...
Because the jumper is knitted in the round you should check your gauge by knitting in the round. I used this quick 'in the round' swatch technique.
Checking gauge is not the law but it is recommended to save time and get a good fit.😆
When knitting in the round, using the Magic Loop technique can be very useful. When knitting in the round you want the length of your needle to be less than the circumference of your project. Magic Loop allows you to knit a small circumference using a longer length circular needle so you don't need to buy lots of different lengths or use Double Pointed Needles (DPNs).
If you fancy trying magic loop Very Pink Knits has a good video tutorial here showing you how to cast on and this one shows you how to work your rounds.
Next choose your size. The jumper has sizes from 6 months (giving a finished chest circumference 18.5"/46.5cm) up to age 12 years (chest circumference 30.5"/77cm)
As you have stranded colourwork going across the chest, make sure you pick a size that is bigger than the recipient's chest. There's no stretch in stranded colourwork. But if you're making it for this Christmas... don't go too big or it'll fit next summer!😆
Next - cast on. You want a stretchy cast on so that it'll go over large heads easily. I used a simple Long Tail Cast On but for an even stretchier one you could do a German Twisted Cast On or if you want to be very fancy do a Tubular Cast On.
Work the stranded colourwork carefully by being mindful of how the strands or floats of unused yarn lie across the back.
Doing the 2 year old size meant my jumper knitted up quickly. But I was conscious of not knitting too fast in case the stranded colourwork got too tight. This is caused by pulling the strand or float of unused colour too tightly.
One piece of advice I give all beginner stranded colourworkers is to make sure the stitches on the right-hand needle are neatly spaced before you strand across the back of them. If you've been knitting furiously, stitches can get bunched up on the right hand needle. If you strand across these bunched up stitches you will get some puckering on the front of your work.
I also didn't catch the strands.😲
This is a bit controversial.
Even more so as this is a toddler's jumper.
When stranding, many knitters catch the stranded yarn or float at the back of their work every 5 or 8 stitches. This can keep your knitting neater and stop things (toddler fingers) getting caught in the strands. You can see how to trap your strands here.
I have never caught my floats. But I have also never pulled a stranded colourwork jumper over a baby or toddler's head. So you may not wish to follow my lead on this.
Here are my favourite beginner guides to stranded colourwork. You can also pop into the shop for a demo or specific help.
- How to Knit Fair-Isle Patterns by Tin Can Knits
- Knitting Colourwork with Two Hands by Andrea Rangel
- Favourite Fair-Isle Techniques by Very Pink Knits on YouTube
- Stranded Colourwork in Magic Loop by Andrea Mowry on YouTube
For casting off I used the Icelandic Cast Off. which gives a nice rounded edge to the mistake rib, but it's still stretchy. If you've done a tubular cast on you may want to try a tubular cast off.
unblocked
The last step is blocking - i.e. washing and drying flat. This is very important in stranded colourwork knitting as it relaxes the stitches and helps them sit straight and allows the fibres to bloom. When soaking the yarn I was a bit concerned that the red would bleed onto the cream so I soaked in cool water, watching the water to make sure there was no excess of red dye. Then handwashed in Eucalan. Still watching the water. There was a very slight discolouration of the water but the cream remains creamy! If you are a nervous washer I would recommend adding a colour catcher sheet - just in case!
Blocked - the light changed!
Overall I really enjoyed this project. It has a bold but colourwork motif and the seamless in-the-round construction is simple to work and gives a neat finish.
One thing I would suggest is to consider not doing the stranded colourwork on the cuffs or at least taking extra care (a larger needle) and catching your float. It looks lovely... but you do run the risk of tighter cuffs and little fingers getting caught. It is also quite fiddley in comparison to the rest of the jumper.
To recap:
You can buy Lunaberry as a digital pattern in the Pittenweem shop (it will be emailed to you) or you can buy on Ravelry
You can see our selection of King Cole Wool Aran here. Or scroll down.👇
