My First Colorwork Sweater: Badger and Bloom

Happy WIP Wednesday! This week I finished my first colorwork sweater, Badger and Bloom by designer Anne Ventzel.

You can find the sweater pattern on Ravelry under the designers storefront : Anne Ventzel Ravelry Store.

If you are just starting your colorwork journey, I recommend checking out her patterns, they are very beginner friendly.

Project Details

For my project, I used the recommended yarn (CaMaRose Snefnug) and followed the 2 color iteration of the Pattern. For this project I knitted a size small.

Supplies Used

• US 9 (5.5 mm) 80 cm circular needles
• US 9 (5.5 mm) 40 cm circular needles
• US 8 (5.0 mm) 80 cm circular needles
• US 7 (4.5 mm) 80 cm circular needles
• US 7 (4.5 mm) 40 cm circular needles
• 5 Skeins (250 g) CaMaRose Snefnug in the color 7314 Lysbeige
• 3 Skeins (150 g) CaMaRose Snefnug in the color 7313 Koskgra

Changes from the Pattern

I made several changes to this pattern out of necessity. The first change was to needle size. The pattern requires that you use US 10 needles for parts of the colorwork. I did not have US 10 needles and didn’t want to make another needle purchase, so I sized down to US 9.

The pattern also suggests the CaMaRose Snefnug in color Sort. I could not find this color available online. I believe due to the popularity of this pattern it was out of stock. So, I picked the Koskgra which is a similar black yarn.

The Yarn

The CaMaRose Snefnug yarn used in my project is a natural fiber yarn made of Wool, Alpaca, and Cotton. I found this yarn to be relatively easy to work with while knitting.

While knitting, I found this yarn to be extremely soft to the touch. After blocking, the finished garment was still soft, but slightly itchy. One caveat, is that I do have sensitive skin, so this yarn might feel less itchy to someone else.

One of the challenges with this pattern/project was the use of a dark colored yarn. This was my first time using a black yarn and I found it really challenging to count my increases without a stitch marker since I could not tell where I’d placed them visually.

The Yoke

The yoke contains most of the colorwork in the Badger and Bloom pattern. The colorwork chart was really easy to follow and the pattern included a video link with instructions on how to read a chart.

The one thing I wish was different on this pattern is the number of increases. I personally, felt like the fit would be better if there were more frequent increases during the increase row immediately after the color. During blocking, I really had to stretch this section of the sweater to achieve the fit I was looking for.

German Short Rows

The German short rows on this sweater flummoxed me a bit. When reading the pattern, the German short rows seemed to be asymmetrical. It took some digging through the Ravelry comment page for me to figure it out.

The Answer: The beginning of round marker is set right behind the right armhole.

I had assumed while working on the yoke, that the beginning of round marker was set in the middle of the back. This is incorrect, it is actually set right behind the right arm. This becomes more clear as you continue the German short rows and separate the arms.

Body and Sleeves

The body and sleeves separation was very standard in this pattern. There was additional colorwork at the bottom of the body and sleeves kept this project interesting and left me something to look forward too.

Blocking

I used wet blocking for this project, since the yarn is a wool and alpaca blend.

I found that I had to stretch the shoulders a lot to achieve the fit I wanted.

Finished Sweater

I was pretty satisfied with the final sweater results. If I make this sweater again, I would size up to a Medium and add a bit of additional length to the body.

Thanks for reading! If you make this sweater, let me know if the comments.