My son Max currently loves his hand-knit sweaters (but only has one or two that fit) and always chooses this one. It was time to add to his sweater collection, and with Max’s love of mad colours (and my own) in mind, I decided to make him a Crazyheart sweater as part of the Heart On My Sleeve KAL.
I really loved knitting this sweater! The designer Tanis Lavallée has such a talent for creating clean details and delicious knits, and I was excited to experiment with colour at the yoke…and triangles are so hot right now, right?! Tanis knit a Crazyheart sweater for each of her family members, check them out here!
I worked the 132 st body size (following the stitch counts for size 2-4 years), but since I did it in slightly heavier weight yarn, on 4.5mm needles, the finished body circumference of the garment came out to 28” around at the chest, which is near the finished chest measurement of the 6-8 year size. With that in mind, I made body and sleeves 12-13” long, which corresponded with 4-6 or 6-8 year sizes. So while the sweater is really long on him now (he’s nearly 3), it will probably fit until he’s 6, or so I’m hoping!
For the ‘heart on my sleeve’ I used the little heart motif designed by Mary Jane Mucklestone – I worked it 3 times, for a long section of hearts.
If you haven’t already checked out the Heart On My Sleeve collection, you give it a look now! The ebook includes 8 yoke designs by 9 designers, and all proceeds from the sale of this ebook are donated to the Against Malaria Foundation. Designs were donated by Shannon Cook, Romi Hill, Bristol Ivy, Tanis Lavallée, Joji Locatelli, Jane Richmond, Ysolda Teague, and Alexa and I at Tin Can Knits. We’ve already donated over $40,000 USD, which buys 16,178 nets, which will protect 29,000 people (the entire population of 50-60 villages). Why malaria? Well it’s preventable (no one need die), yet it kills half a million people every year, and 70% of those who die are children under 5. Learn more here.
choosing colours
My colour vision for this Crazyheart sweater was inspired by one of the Prism hats that I made while working on Mad Colour. I love the way teals, reds, and oranges interact with each other, in fact it’s one of my favourite colour combos.
With the body knit in a rich variegated red in Malabrigo Rios, I pulled out my stash of scraps of Rainbow Heirloom Sweater yarn in a wide variety of colours, grouping together the ones I thought might work for the yoke pattern.
I knit the body of the sweater in Malabrigo Rios in ‘marte’.
Designing the yoke and choosing colours
First I determined that I wanted the red / MC tone to flow through the yoke, and that I wanted to use teal blues in contrast. I coloured a few options in to see what might work.
MC continued through yoke
2-tone triangles of blue, yellow, green, then purple
ombre of blues and reds
ombre of warms against cool
Planning can take you only so far, so I got started, and knit the yoke. I didn’t get it quite right on the first try, but with a small adjustment, I ended up with a sweater I love!
KAL roundup … and Prize Winners!
Have you knit a Heart On My Sleeve sweater? Browse the lovely finished KAL knits on the Ravelry Group.
Perhaps you’re one of the lucky KAL participants to have won the epic prizes? Chosen by random number generator from among the 160+ entries:
- trixieterrible won the Fringe Supply Company Woolelujah tote
- jorunnellen won the Pom Pom Magazine Take Heart gift pack
- PlanetAnnaKnits won a sweater amount of Dovestone DK donated by Baa Ram Ewe
- sls8201 won 5 skeins of WYS Fleece DK in ‘ecru’ donated by The Loveliest Yarn Company
- sarahjg2 won the TFA palette donated by Tanis Fiber Arts
- OldEnglishRose won 7 skeins of YOTH Big Sister in ‘raw honey’ + 1 skein of YOTH Big Sister ‘blue raspberry’ donated by YOTH yarns
- RavelJ won a SweetGeorgia party of five gradient + 2 skeins Superwash DK donated by SweetGeorgia Yarns
AND, because we always like to give away a little bit extra, Alexa and I are donating an ebook of her choice to RoHart, who knit not one but TWO lovely adult size sweaters for herself, and Paperdaisy1 who made the most adorable set of Easter sweaters for her 4 boys, including 2 sweaters from Heart On My Sleeve.
There were so many exquisite KAL entries! Each had knit at least one sweater, and many have already knit more than one from the Heart On My Sleeve collection. I’ve included a sampling of some of our favourites below, but do browse the FO thread to see them all!
CorynaBlasko
EchoSierran
knittingela
lindaloveslace
alexW
greenhousegirl
undone57
kplumer
rokay
cimiller
lauraPNW
PaperDaisy1
knitnorth
therealebratt
tatiealexe
trixieterrible
terriko
rokay
KJschroeder
knitsandsews
bamberries
spacegirl
Aleximo
liloxk
yellowboat
franzi55
carsonrach
yellowboat
charlotterusse
More lacy TCK sweaters you might like this spring:
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April 26, 2017 @ 6:20 pm
Love seeing all these Crazyhearts (and how freaking cute is Max?!) so inspiring. I totally want to do a cowl version!
April 23, 2017 @ 3:26 pm
I love all of the cool color combinations people have chosen in the sweaters, they’re all unique!
April 21, 2017 @ 1:18 pm
Congratulations to all the winners! It was fun participating, and scrolling through the FO thread was inspirational!