u/termacct

I've had this pattern saved in Ravelry for 3 years and I finally took the plunge as my first colorwork jumper 😳

I used worsted weight as opposed to the recommended bulky weight because I wanted a more fitted version, therefore, I went down a needle size. I knew this pattern had problems because of all the research I did, so shout out to lisapane for her diligence in identifying the many errors.

I began my journey with the medium size and decided to catch my floats like I had done many times on socks. Around row 35, I realized the jumper was going to be too small and there were little puckers everywhere showing where the floats were caught, so I ripped it out and started again.

This time, I went with the large size and read a lot about how to tackle the colorwork. I decided to teach myself ladderback jaquard. Easy enough, right? Well, I started with the lifted increase technique... holes everywhere, rip. Then I tried the backwards loop technique... terrible tension and too fiddly for my taste, rip. I finally landed on the m1 purlwise tbl and this was the game changer I needed. I was off to the races. The body went as well as I could have hoped.

When the arms came around, I started with the one that was mostly MC, and that knit up just fine on my dpns. When it came to the tentacle arm, I had more research to do because the ladderback didn't go well. The netting wasn't allowing my arm to comfortably go through and there were tension issues with the dpns. I read that some people had used intarsia in the round for this section, so could I try that? After 2 rounds, I decided, no, no I could not. I had gone this far and felt stuck. So, I landed on duplicate stitch. It was just for the arm and I really wanted to finish this jumper. It felt a little dirty, but I'm pleased with the results.

I joined the arms with the body and finished the yoke with LJ. The short row shaping was not my favorite, but I got away with it. I finished it off with a folded neck and she was done.

Does it fit me? No. I was too excited to gauge swatch and I hoped for the best. I'm grateful for the experience anyway, and my very knitworthy wife is going to love it.

This project may not be advanced for a lot of you wizards on here, but it was my most difficult project to date and I learned a whole lot.