My darling granddaughter encouraged us to paint our guest room (where she sleeps) purple; we declined and painted it the same blue it was. To compensate, I’m knitting her this purple sweater.

photos were taken Christmas morning over Batman pyjamas. The sad face has nothing to do with the sweater. Someone said “no” to her.

Using more colours to use up stash, plus I don’t have enough MC.

MC Truxton Circle (purple)
1st CC Upton (black)
2nd CC Thomas Circle (gray)

My gauge is closer to 20 stitches per 4 inches, so do size 8 to get 10. Ended up with 148 stitches for the body after sleeve separation.

Mods:

• add pockets. Every kid needs pockets to stash their treasures. Afterthought pockets with 3-stitch i-cord at the opening. I was zooming along knitting the body and forgot about the pockets; ideally, I would have had them at the top of the MC stripe, not 4 rows down!
• 3 stripes at the top and 2 on the bottom. Same on the sleeves.

Notes about the pattern:

• the pattern is very comprehensive and the numerous stitch count charts are helpful, but I find the font is very small and cramped. I can blow up the pattern on my computer, but on my iPad with Knit Companion, I can only look at 1/2 page at a time.
• no schematic, only a chart with measurements, which is missing the side seam.
• the RS increases are slanted left and right, but the WS increases are only M1P instead of m1pl and m1pr, so all your WS increases are left-leaning. Why?
• I didn’t like the purl ridge on the inside of the slipped stitch rows in the stripe, as I thought that was distracting and took away from the slipped stitches, so I omitted it and just knit in stockinette with the slipped stitches.
• I am not a fan on the Suzie-M contiguous method of sleeves, as it creates that weird ridge at the shoulder, which thankfully usually smooths out when worn. It is a big problem if the designer keeps the 2-stitch ridge going for too long, because then the fit is off. I prefer raglan, or that other method of set-in sleeves that a lot of designers use (Laura Aylor calls it her TD4S, and Isabelle Kramer, Al-Fa and 11 Wild Swans all use it) that gives a better fit. Especially for a kid’s sweater, I wouldn’t have chosen the contiguous method.
• the best part about this pattern is the shawl collar and icord bindoff on the buttonband - enough shawl collar to roll nicely, and a beautiful clean finish to the bands.