Gemma 
Last month, I shared a post called A Tale of Two Hats, which was all about the colourwork hats that I made as swatches, ahead of making a larger, colourwork sweater. Well, I have now finished that sweater and am very happy to bring you the seventh instalment of my Project Knitwear series! In this post, I’ll be talking you through how I made this Pumpkin Strange Brew Sweater, inspired by Tiny Human Knits and using the Strange Brew pattern by Tin Can Knits.
Also, a slight disclosure: I actually haven’t blocked this jumper before taking these photos (I just gave it a heavy steaming), because I wanted to get this post out before we get into the festive posts! Please rest assured that I will be blocking it (and, if you see any bumpiness… no you don’t).
Table of Contents
The Pattern
I was inspired to make this sweater after seeing the pumpkin sweater made by Tiny Human Knits, which was itself inspired by a commercial sweater. Just like Tiny Human Knits (or THK, as I’ll be referring to her for the rest of the post), I used the Strange Brew pattern by Tin Can Knits for the actual jumper construction. This pattern is kind of a build-your-own sweater recipe: it contains lots of different puzzle-piece instructions that you can join together to make the perfect jumper for you. I also relied heavily on the notes on THK’s Ravelry project page for her sweater, which include LOADS of information & tips for making the sweater.
Using the Strange Brew pattern, I followed the instructions for the top-down sweater in size L (which is significant, because THK’s sweater was made in size M/L, so the charts were made to suit the stitch counts for that size and I did have to adapt a couple of them for the larger size). I adapted the ribbed neckline to created a folded-over neckline (because I thought it would look cool). I also added German short rows (following THK’s instructions) underneath the neckline, on the back.
This was actually my first time making a yoked sweater (or any fitted sweater really, my jumper experience before this was limited to two, boxy Weasley jumpers…). Of course, being me, I decided to go all out with a pretty complicated colourwork situation for my first foray into sweater-making. As recommended by THK, I used the Ladderback Jacquard Technique for most of the colourwork sections (which I had practised a lot while making the two hat swatches!).
Adapted Charts for Size L
As I mentioned I had to adapt some of THK’s colourwork charts to suit the stitch count of the size I was making (L). Charts 1, 2 & 4 were all absolutely fine, so I just followed them directly from THK’s Ravelry page. For the other charts though, I did have to make a few alterations to get them to work. You can find them here (I’ve given the basic chart for each one first, then the one with red lines to indicate where I placed my ladderback stitches, for reference):
Chart 3
Chart 5 & 6 (combined)
Chart 7
The Yarn
After copious testing of various different colours and combinations (you can read more about that here), I finally settled on the following yarns/shades:
- Yarnsmiths Merino Sock, in the shade Rich Brown (2K079)
- Scheepjes Metropolis, in the shade Liverpool (065)
- King Cole Merino Blend 4 Ply, in the shades Aran (046) and Willow (3942)
I wasn’t quite sure how much yarn I’d need of each colour, so I played it safe and ordered more than I thought I would need… I guess there’s some more pumpkin hats in my future, because I now have quite a lot of leftover yarn! I kept track of how much yarn I used throughout the process, so, to give you a rough idea, if you want to make your own Pumpkin Strange Brew Sweater, I used the following amounts of each yarn:
Yarnsmiths Merino Sock, Rich Brown (2K079):
- 235g (3 skeins, with about 2/3 of a ball remaining).
Scheepjes Metropolis, Liverpool (065):
- 55g (2 skeins, with most of the second ball remaining).
King Cole Merino Blend 4 Ply, Aran (046):
- 81g (2 skeins, with just under half of the second ball remaining)
King Cole Merino Blend 4 Ply, Willow (3942):
- 8g (1 skein, with most of the ball remaining).
The Knitting Process
This project was a big challenge for me, being my first time knitting both a yoked and a colourwork sweater. It involved a lot of planning and intense thinking beforehand, but the actual knitting process went pretty smoothly, which was a relief! I did make some adaptations along the way (and, inevitably, ran into a couple of problems here and there), which I’ll talk about now:
Neckline
The original Strange Brew neckline is just a simple ribbed situation. I was 100% thinking that I would work my neckline according to the pattern when I started out, so I wanted to make sure my cast-on edge was nice and neat (and suitably stretchy). To achieve this, I opted to use the Alternating Cable Cast-On and, though it is a bit moot now, I really liked the slight picot effect it gave!
About halfway through the ribbed section, I decided to make a folded neckline instead (hence the moot-ness of my pretty picot cast-on…). I just thought that a folded neckline would make the jumper look that little bit more neat and professional, so I decided to go for it!
To make the folded neckline, I just knit double the length of rib the pattern called for (i.e. 2.5 inches instead of 1.25 inches). When I’d finished knitting the jumper, I went back with some brown yarn and used a whip stitch to secure the cast on edge to the base of the rib on the inside of the jumper (I used the first row of purl bumps as a guide). I made sure to keep my stitching loose, but neat, to preserve the stretch.
Short Rows
Like THK, I included German Short Rows in my sweater, to help it sit better. The Strange Brew pattern does contain instructions for adding opitional short rows, but they are worked after the yoke, which I didn’t really want. Instead, I opted to follow THK’s instructions and worked my short rows right after I finished the neckline (before starting the colourwork yoke), on the back of the garment.
I did, however, skip the ‘knit 1 row, purl 1 row, knit 1 row’ section from THK’s notes, just because I didn’t really want a visible purl ridge on the yoke.
Colourwork
As recommended by THK, I used the Ladderback Jacquard technique for the majority of the colourwork sections (basically anywhere where there were gaps of more than 5 stitches between a single colour). To set up my ladderback stitches, I followed this tutorial from knitdarling.com. I found that I preferred setting up the stitches by working a M1L increase purl-wise, as opposed to a backwards loop cast-on, which I also (accidentally) tried out when making my hat swatches. I purled all of my ladderback stitches throughout, to make the inside of the sweater extra neat (because, that way, all of the ladderbacks appear as knit stitches from the back).
I did run into a little bit of trouble with the increase rounds of the yoke distorting my colourwork, so I did have to do a little bit of trial and error to work out the best places to work those rows. In the end, I worked the increase rounds on the following rounds:
- Increase round 1: Row 1 of Chart 1
- Increase round 2: Row 2 of Chart 2
- Increase round 3: Row 18 of Chart 2
- Increase round 4: Row 3 of Chart 5
I also added 2 more rows of plain brown before starting the colourwork (on row 6) in Chart 1, just to suit the size L a little better.
The one real problem I ran into with this pattern was The Jog, where the colourwork is slightly offset at the beginning of the round (on mine, this was at the centre back in the yoke, then under one arm after splitting for the sleeves). The Strange Brew pattern talks about this in depth, so I was fully prepared for it, but I did get myself into a bit of a pickle with it, where I thought I’d made a mistake, so dropped down, ‘fixed’ it and then couldn’t for the life of me figure out why my colourwork wasn’t working. I stared at it for ages, trying to find the problem, then gave it to my mum, who also stared at it for ages, before she was eventually able to work out what I’d done (spoiler alert: I hadn’t made a mistake— The Jog tricked me…)! Phew.
Hem/Cuffs
The Strange Brew pattern recommends going down to the smaller needle size (2.75mm, instead of 3.50mm) for the ribbed hem/cuffs. I opted to use 3.00mm needles for my rib, instead, just so they didn’t pull in too much. 2 inches of rib ended up being about 21 rows at my gauge.
To cast off both the hem and the cuffs after the ribbed sections, I used HiyaHiya Grandma’s Stretchy Bind Off, making sure not to do it too tightly (which is a longstanding, unfortunate habit of mine). I like this cast off for rib, because it looks nice and keeps everything nice and stretchy.
Sleeves
To make sure that my charts fit the sleeves, I opted to pick up a handful more stitches than the pattern called for at the underarms: 11 and 12, respectively (before and after the centre marker), for a total of 96 stitches for each sleeve (instead of 92). I made sure to pick up the 4 extra stitches at the beginning and end of my underarm cast-on stitches, because that’s usually where you get a bit of a gap anyway. Actually, this method ended up reducing the gaps, which I meant I had less darning to do at the end of the project, so it all worked out for the best!
I worked the setup round in the white yarn, then, once that was done, continued on in colourwork, following Chart 5/6.
Things got a little trickier when it came to the sleeve decreases— there was a lot of trying on and measuring and calculating. To get sleeves that fit me, without the decreases warping the colourwork, and ending up with the right amount of stitches for the colourwork at the cuffs, I did the following, all in brown yarn:
- [Decrease round, 4 plain rounds] 7 times.
- [Decrease round, 3 plain rounds] 10 times.
- [Decrease round, 1 plain round] 1 time.
So, this gave me a total of 18 decrease rounds, which took me from 96 to 60 stitches, just as I needed. They’re more condensed than the decrease rounds in the Strange Brew pattern, but the sleeves fit me, so all is well. After the sleeve decreases were done, I worked Chart 7, before knitting the ribbed cuffs in brown, again.
New Techniques
- Alternating Cable Cast-On
- HiyaHiya Grandma’s Stretchy Bind-Off*
- Ladderback Jacquard colourwork technique*
- Following a colourwork chart*
- Colourwork in the round*
- Folded neckline (stitched down)
- German short rows*
- Knitting a yoke
- Sleeve decreases*
Final Thoughts
Oh. My. Goodness. I kind of can’t believe I made this?! It was so far out of my comfort zone and felt like such a mountain to climb, but it was actually a really fun project to make. I was very much overwhelmed initially by using the Strange Brew ‘recipe’ instead of a regular pattern that you can just follow to the letter, but it did make it super easy to customise the jumper and make sure it fit me perfectly (which is good, because it was a lot of work and I would hate to not be able to wear it after all that!). I’m proud of myself for persevering, though, and, actually, I just took things one step at a time, making adjustments when needed, following the pattern/THK’s instructions when needed (and, of course, taking a break every now and then!) and it all worked out.
While I don’t think I’ll be jumping into another colourwork sweater straight away, I really did enjoy working on this project— I think I may just have got super used to working the Ladderback Jacquard technique after the double-hat-swatch-situation, but I honestly found that the colourwork sections went faster than the plain brown sections!
This was definitely my most ambitious Project Knitwear so far, but I also think it might be the most successful: it turned out exactly how I imagined it, which makes me so unbelievably proud!
Also…. a special thank you to Tiny Human Knits for providing such extensive notes on her Ravelry project page for her jumper: it has truly been my Pumpkin Sweater Bible over the last couple of months!
If you're interested...
You can find the Strange Brew Sweater pattern by Tin Can Knits here.
You can find the project page for the Strange Brew Pumpkin by Tiny Human Knits on Ravelry here.
You can find the project page for my Pumpkin Strange Brew Sweater on Ravelry here.
Gemma
xxx
