Designed a mushroom patch on graph paper and knitted the body of the sweater in one piece -- no side seams to mess up the mushroom pattern.

French knots in white for the spots on the mushrooms, with some pale green grass stems stitched randomly.

Replace the buttonholes with a pair of ladybug buttons and an easy loop. Who wants to chase after a three-year-old boy trying to do up seven buttons? Looks good with the collar, which stands up a bit, Nehru-like.

(If you like the mushrooms, check out these adorable “mushroom bonsai” amigurumi by 203gow.)

The colors of the Cotton-Ease lend themselves well to this idea: the Hazelnut is a weird shade which can look more brown or more green, depending on the light. I had originally planned to make the mushroom tops in a brighter red, but the Terracotta was a more subtle and “natural” color choice.

14.Jan.11: update! I found the mushroom chart I used for this sweater. You can download it as a PDF (hosted on Google Drive; you do not need a Google account to download) with this link: http://goo.gl/1zBhkL.

Chart is free to use as you like, although I would love to see your project pictures when you finish something using the mushrooms.

Rathgrith’s version is based on a modified chart that she converted into a color chart. No special login needed to see and print this chart; just click the link.

Here’s LagunaKathy’s version of the mushrooms on a zip-up, raglan sweater.

Here’s Ilana’s version of the mushrooms, based on the Green Zebra baby sweater.

Here’s Farmama’s version, using the Fletcher sweater. And then she made another version, putting the mushrooms on the front pocket of a hoodie (wee gnome on the back!).

Here’s Lindsaymudd’s version, with raglan sleeves and a grey heather background. (And oh gosh, how much do you love these bird-in-the-hand gloves?)