I had two great ideas for intarsia on a sweater I was making for a friend’s baby, but time to knit only one. That’s when Button It! was born—one sweater with several super cute removable picture patches. When an idea hits, I usually start sketching on the nearest bit of paper, so I whipped up some animal pictures in my design journal, along with some calculations. Crunching numbers to work out the dimensions,
I figured out the best way to centre the intarsia on the patch and developed the basic shape of the sweater. I love how Button It! turned out—it’s sweet, versatile, and practical. The patches are easier to manipulate than a whole sweater front and less work to undo if you make a boo-boo. What’s best is that all of your intarsia work isn’t wasted when the kid outgrows the sweater—simply knit a bigger one and button on the patch.

The pattern also requires 10 smaller than full ball quantities of different colours for the intarsia patches.