I confess--I’m planning this project as a way to test this colorway for myself! I am afraid it will look pretty tacky, which an adorable 6-year-old can pull off better than this 30-year-old. I plan to hold 4 strands together to equal a heavy-worsted weight, and knit the 6-year-old size in a looser stitch gauge (4.5 st/inch rather than the 5 st/inch the pattern calls for) to create a larger garment with some (hopefully) nice drape.

I plan to minimize the pooling of the hand-painted yarn and stripe/ombre the garment as follows: hold 2 strands of Make Believe with 2 strands of the Glimmer for a total of 4 strands, and change only one color of the Glimmer at a time. The bottom of the garment will have 2 strands of Foxglove, followed by 1 strand Foxglove and 1 strand Eggplant, then 2 strands of Eggplant, then one of Eggplant and one of Peacock, then 2 strands of Peacock, then 1 strand of Peacock and 1 strand of Potion, then 2 strands of Potion, then 1 strand of Potion and one strand of Dragonscale, then end with 2 strands of Dragonscale at the top of the hood.

If this colorway/striping/ombre looks awesome, I will likely make a sweater for myself with these colors! If it looks overly-sparkly with too much going on, well, my small friend will still think it’s fabulous and I will have dodged a fashion bullet.

So, I knit a swatch including the hood edge and cable to check gauge and how the yarns looked together. The colors look awesome, but the gauge is too thick (16 st/4 inches on size 8 needles). The fabric is nicely dense, but I think if I went down a size it would be too dense, so I need to drop a thread out. I will have to see which looks better: 2 Make Believe strands with one glimmer, or two glimmer and one make believe. I really want two glimmers so I can blend the colors more gradually, but we’ll see.

With 3 strands (2 glimmers, 1 Make Believe) on size 7 needles, the gauge is 19 st/4 inches--close enough to the 20 that the pattern calls for. It will come out a bit big, but I think that’s a good thing for a child who is going to grow, and who isn’t nearby to try things on.

So far, I am really liking the striping/ombré effect! I have done 2 Dragonscale/1 Make Believe, then 1 Dragonscale, 1 Potion, 1 Make Believe, then 2 Potion/1 Make Believe, and am now using 1 Potion, 1 Peacock, and 1 Make Believe. The variegation of the Make Believe helps make the ombré seem more gradual. I can’t wait to use the purple shades!

Almost done--Just have to finish the left pocket. Because I am difficult, I chose to knit the pockets directly on to the garment by picking up stitches, knitting, then K2tog, AND I am varigating the colors in the cable to match the colors in the overall garment, because apparently I LIKE knitting from like 6 ends at once and creating a tangled mess of awful. I have learned that I would rather knit from both ends of 3 balls of yarn than cut anything and risk “wasting” yarn. I may need professional help in this regard.

Anyways, it’s looking awesome--I am so impressed. Amazing how doing 2 things (knit and purl) enough times in the right order will create something that looks so intricate and complicated. Go me!