Dream of Spring with this Allover Colorwork Sweater Knitting Pattern

A little bit of colorwork, whether it’s stripes, slip stitches, working with a multicolored yarn, stranded knitting, intarsia or any other method, adds a lot more interest and fun to a knitting project.

When it’s allover colorwork, that’s even better. And these bold stranded colorwork flowers just look like so much fun and have me thinking of spring (which really is just around the corner for us in the Northern Hemisphere, right?).

The Alyssum Sweater by Tomomi Yoshimoto uses DK weight yarn (or you can try worsted weight if you can get gauge with it) and features a field of white flowers, though of course you can stitch them in any color you want. White is easy because just about any color looks great with white, from pastels to bright colors, even gray and black.

This sweater is actually a heavier weight version of her Drawing sweater (also available on Ravelry), which uses sport weight yarn and the colorwork isn’t quite over the whole pattern. It also has raglan shaping, while the Alyssum has a circular yoke design. It sounds like Drawing is a little more difficult to get started, because some of the colorwork is worked flat and it starts with short rows, but once you get past the beginning part it sounds like it gets easier.

The Alyssum has all the colorwork done in the round, so that makes it a little easier. But either way this sweater is a beauty and looks like it would be a fun challenge to knit.

Back to Alyssum, it’s available in five sizes, ranging from a chest measurement of 52.5 inches to 68.25 inches. The smallest size is listed as M-L, but it doesn’t indicate how much positive ease is meant to be included, so you can pick the size that you’re most comfortable with.

You can find both patterns on Ravelry.

[Photo: Tomomi Yoshimoto.]

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If you’re looking for a fun project to play with brioche knitting, check out the My Buddy knitting pattern/recipe from Casuarinagirl on Ravelry.

This project doesn’t include a brioche tutorial, so it’s good to know the basics, including how to increase and decrease, but you can always practice on a swatch before you start the project if you want.

The design is meant to be flexible for the yarn you have and what size and shape of project you want to make, from a skinny neck scarf to a asymmetrical triangle or a more classic triangular shape.

The shape you end up with will depend on how often you increase (and then decrease on the other side). The pattern mentions increasing every fourth, fifth or six row (and the one shown increases and decreases every sixth row) but you can do it even more or less often depending on the shape you’re looking for an how much yarn you want to use.

You can work to whatever depth you would like, or use almost half of the yarn you have set aside for the project and begin decreasing.

When it comes to yarn, she used three strands of yarn held together to make a super fluffy shawl, but you can work it with whatever yarn and needles you like to make a wrap that’s all your own.

If you are new to brioche (or to increasing and decreasing in brioche) it might be a good idea to make a little scarf or head wrap first before diving in to the bigger pattern, just so you’re more comfortable with the technique. Or just give it a go; nothing about brioche knitting is that difficult. (But you might want to use a lifeline because I find brioche hard to rip out or fix mistakes in properly.)

You can grab the free pattern for the Buddy Wrap on Ravelry.

[Photo: Casuarinagirl]

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