Earlier this year, I bought a boatload of Hedgehog Fibres Chubby when it first came out. Seriously, I was a yarn pig! For months, I couldn’t figure out what to knit with it, but I knew it should be some sort of sweater. I picked all different colors, meaning the sweater would have to involve some sort of colorwork, and so I jumped on the fade bandwagon.

Fade this, knit it in all one color, stripe it, or be crazy with your creative color choices.

My Big Fat Faded Sweater knits up ridiculously fast- no exaggeration, you can have a sweater in a weekend or less. It was designed with a few short rows to shape the back of the neck, then proceeds with top-down, easy, raglan shaping. There is a reverse garter stitch detail on each side, starting at the underarm, and then a split hem with more short rows to lengthen the bottom for some extra booty coverage.

It’s all easy, and it’s all so fast with super bulky yarn. The smallest size uses just 350 yards!

There is a chart included that shows all the measurements for the different sizes, in lieu of a schematic.

My favorite part of designing is seeing my patterns on your needles, so please consider tagging me on Instagram @melissakdesigns, and uploading pictures to your project pages.

Error: When I converted the Word doc to a pdf, the text box explaining the fade vaporized. I updated the pattern, and those who paid for it will receive the update, but it won’t go to those who were able to get it during the freebie. Here it is for those of you who got it free: How to Fade Your Sweater: There isn’t a mathematical solution that will tell you exactly how many rows you will work in each color, since I wanted each knitter to be able to use as many or as few colors as she (or he) prefers. (Ok, there may be a mathematical equation for that, but I am not enough of a math whiz to figure it out). The best way to “fade” this sweater is to start with color 1 and work until you have about ¼ of your skein left. Add color 2 and work in 1-row stripes until you run out of color 1, then continue with color 2 until you have about ¼ of it left. Repeat these steps with each color change. The only difference will be with whichever color you are on when you separate the sleeves- save enough of it and the next color to work the sleeves to the desired length. As written, you will need about 18 (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24) yards for both sleeves.