pattern by west knits
This sweater pattern from West Knits is so fun to knit! I loved picking out yarn for this baby and watching it come to life! Here are all the juicy details about my finished Amazing Technicolor Dream Sweater knit project!
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sweater back story
I first started this sweater almost 2 years ago. We had just taken a leap of faith and moved to CO! We had no home and no idea where home was going to be – we were staying in a tiny home Airbnb. This project (as well as others) helped me stay sane and productive during that time. It’s amazing how crochet and knitting can really help you keep your mind off of the things that are stressful…And help you feel encouraged by creating! Thank you for that God! 🙂
If you want to read more about how we ended up in Aspen, CO, you can read that blog post [here]! A little side note: we may not have had a home, but we met some amazing people who became our Colorado family while staying at that Airbnb – the owners of Cedar Ridge Ranch. If you want to visit CO and are looking for a place to stay definitely consider Cedar Ridge Ranch!
The Amazing Technicolor Dream Sweater is a fun and unique knit from West Knits! Find the pattern on Ravelry [here]. This is the third West Knits pattern that I have made and I know it will not be the last. His designs are so vibrant and beautiful! A lot of them are also great stash busters as well – which I am always a fan of! 😉
first time around
It was so fun picking out color combos for this sweater! I grabbed a bunch of pretty yarns from my stash and started knitting away. Somewhere near halfway in, I realized I had been reading the pattern wrong. So, this pile of yarn is what became of my work-in-progress. LOL! 😉 I was eager to get going again on the project, but life happened. I think I also procrastinated a bit because It seemed daunting to start all over. BUT, I am always happy when I frog a project and remake it into something I will use a lot! Time for round 2…but first the yarn…
yarn for my amazing technicolor dream sweater
As sad as it was to take all my progress apart, I was still so excited about the yarns that I chose for this sweater pattern! These are some of the yarns that I used:
- Knit Collage Dreamland Yarn in Kinari Bazar
- Yarnspirations Caron Cotton Cakes
- Lion Brand Yarn Jeans Yarn in Top Stitch
- Lion Brand Yarn Wool-Ease Thick & Quick
- Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn! in Light Peach
- Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn! in Mango
- Yarn Bee Snuggle Up in Cream
- We Are Knitters The Cotton in Mint
- Wool And The Gang Sugar Baby Alpaca in Cameo Rose
try again
It turned out to be almost exactly a year before I picked up this knitting project again…And almost another year before writing this blog post about it. LOL! Can I just say again I absolutely love the combo of yarns and placement of the colors in this sweater so much! 😉 Knitting this baby was truly a treat!
let’s start with the sleeves…
This pattern starts from the sleeve cuff and works up towards the middle of the sweater. It’s nice that you can decide how long you want the cuff of your sleeve to be. I love a cuff to be right at the base of my thumb or slightly over. It’s just super cozy! The pattern had a couple of different measurements for the cuffs. He mentions a 2.5″ and 9″ option. Mine are in between – right around 6.5″. Just like with the cuff, I think it’s so nice to be able to measure how your sweater will fit on your arm as you go!
I used a sparkly yarn mixed with a Hobby Lobby turquoise yarn – Yarn Bee brand I believe – for the cuff. I love the texture and dimension mixing these two yarns gives. Since I planned on adding in so many different yarn styles and colors to the front, I wanted the sleeves to be a bit uniform. Let’s be honest though, they aren’t super uniform. What can I say, I love me some unique things! 😉 On both sleeves I used a Yarnspirations Cotton Cake yarn directly after the cuff. I love how the color transitions from the cake ended up forming on each sleeve.
onto the front
After that, I started with the striped details in the body of the sweater. Since you begin each piece from the sleeve, I decided to try to make each front panel as much like a mirror image as possible. Although I love a random color pattern, I thought having some sort of order would be visually appealing.
I used mostly aran and worsted weight yarns for this sweater. I didn’t check gauge cause I honestly was just too excited about using these particular textures and colors together more than the perfect fit. Since the fit of the sweater is meant to be oversized anyway, I thought everything would work out in the end…Thankfully, it did. 😉 I threw in a couple of bulky and super bulky weight yarns as well, but I tried to use those sparingly.
I was so excited to use my leftover fuzzy yarn for the shoulder portions of this sweater! They remind me of shoulder pads, but in the best possible way! 😉 This yarn was what I used for my little llama on my Llama Llove Pillow crochet pattern. Find that pattern [here]!
I decided to make the neckline wider than what the pattern called for and just add the I-cord edge without the extra rows. I felt like with the dramatic fuzzy shoulders the neckline needed to be a bit wider. It did turn out maybe a little too wide, but over all I’m happy with it. 🙂 I used Sugar Baby Alpaca from Wool And The Gang for the I-cord neckline edge and the bottom edge of the sweater.
color blocking on the back!
When I was deciding how I wanted the back of this Amazing Technicolor Dream Sweater to look, I knew I wanted it to be slightly different than the front…As if there weren’t enough visual details already in this sweater. Hee Hee! 😉
This pattern uses a lot of the moss stitch which – up until that point – I had never used before. I LOVE the texture of this cool knit stitch. The contrast of the color-blocking on the back and stripes on the front made for a super neat combo, I thought! I also love that you really get a good look at the texture of the moss stitch on the back of the sweater.
finishing
There are two options for finishing your sweater in the pattern – leaving the raw edges or adding a brioche border. I really liked the look of the brioche border, but I didn’t want to add any more length to the sweater. I felt like it was just the right length. Because I had used several different textures and weights of yarn, I felt like the unfinished look wasn’t quite right either. I settled on a crocheted edge with the same Sugar Baby Alpaca as the neckline of the sweater. It did tighten up the bottom and created a bit of a balloony effect, but I thought that was also unique and fun.
All in all this was such a fun project to work on…twice! 😉 West Knit’s patterns are so easy to follow and I love getting inspired to use new and exciting color combos with each one that I make! I always learn something new with his patterns as well which is a definite win! Thank you so much for reading about my finished Amazing Technicolor Dream Sweater! I hope you enjoyed finding out more about it and that it has inspired you to get creative with yarn color combos and textures in your own projects! 🙂
here is a video tour of my finished amazing technicolor dream sweater. press play!
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