I knit up these super cute, celestial sweaters for myself and my niece. The Astraeus is the adult version, and the Moonbeam is the child version. Read all about my knitting experience here:
HOW I DISCOVERED IT
I was combing through Ravelry, trying to find a cute sweater pattern to make for my niece; I really like how you can filter and refine your search with their Advanced Search. I came across the cutest rainbow and unicorn sweater from Bad Wolf Girl Studios.
I knew I wanted to make it, but the pattern wasn’t available until October 31st. I’ve never seen a pattern page posted before the pattern was actually released, but I added it to my queue and continued my search for a sweater pattern I could make now. I didn’t need to look far, because in the “More From This Designer” section, I found the Astraeus!
The Astraeus sweater immediately caught my eye with it’s celestial colorwork pattern. And I was even more excited that there was a child size version included, the Moonbeam. This was perfect for me because I love having matching outfits with my niece (just like with the first sweater I made)! Lucky for me, the pattern was immediately available — in fact, it was the pattern’s release day.
WHAT YOU GET & DON’T GET
You get a lot with the Astraeus by Meghan Regan (Bad Wolf Girl Studios) — an Adult Astreaus Sweater, an Adult Cowl, a Child Moonbeam Sweater, a Child Cowl, and a Ornament Hat pattern. I’ve never seen a pattern give so much in one purchase. The Ravelry pattern page also said that a fingering weight version of the sweater would be added in a few weeks, but that wording was later edited to say that it would be added as a “different pattern”. I had chosen to buy the pattern on Ravelry vs on Etsy (where it was $2 less) because I was interested in the additional fingering pattern, so I felt misled by that edit.
CHOOSING YARN
There seemed to be some confusion on the Ravelry pattern page and the pattern itself about how many yards of yarn were required for the different sizes. There was a lot of conflicting information, and some of the test knitters said they had a lot left over. A commenter also mentioned that the yardage in the pattern was not accurate. I wasn’t sure how much I would really need for my adult size and a child size for my niece. :/
I really wanted to find the perfect yarn for this sweater. The designer’s test knit of the Astraeus and the Moonbeam look so beautiful with the blue and gold that it looks like a midnight sky. I wanted to find similar colors with a nice contrast to make the stars really pop. I eventually decided to order my yarn from Madeline Tosh because their colors looked super rich and like they had so much dimension.
I ended up ordering 7 skeins of Madeline Tosh DK Twist in Nocturne, which is an inky navy with small pops of denim blue. And 2 skeins of DK Twist in Glazed Pecan which looks like a dark mustardy gold color with a lot of dimension.
PREPARATION
While I waited for my yarn to arrive, I studied the patterns a lot. I work all my patterns from my iPad, so I like to go through and highlight all the relevant sizing information and make any notes.
I decided to make the 48″ size for myself since I thought that would give me an oversized/more sweatshirt-like fit, and the 25″ size for my niece since she’s already really tall, and there would hopefully be a little room to grow into.
I’ve knit colorwork before with my Tundra Sweater, so I felt confident that I could work this moon pattern without any issues. I haven’t done German Short Rows in the round before like it calls for in the optional neck shaping, but I had done them flat in my Marled Magic Sweater, my Magnolia Little, and in my 9-inch needle socks. I felt well-equipped to make these sweaters.
First Impressions of the Patterns
My immediate first impressions were that the patterns could be laid out better and organized a little more clearly. For example, in the Astraeus pattern: ‘Abbreviations’ heading is split from the page with the actual abbreviations (I think this is probably just a pdf exporting error); I wish the Abbreviations and Glossary were at the beginning; color chart is cut off at the top this was corrected in a revised pattern; there also seems to be a lot of redundancy between the Glossary and Abbreviations; and the second chart has no heading — I assume this is the cowl.
For the Moonbeam sweater, I had similar first impressions: ‘Cast On & Ribbing’ heading is split from the page with the actual section instructions; same with the ‘Body’ heading and instructions; in ‘Sleeves’ section, it says “PU&K” which I’m sure means “pick up and knit”, but that isn’t stated in the Glossary section; there’s a “Chart – Small Sizes” (which is actually visually very small in the pattern), but it doesn’t say which sizes that applies to; the “Chart – Large Sizes/ star fall body sts” doesn’t list the sizes that apply either. Also, the Ravelry page said the Moonbeam came with an Ornament pattern, but I’m not seeing that in my .pdf; I do see a hat pattern that wasn’t mentioned though.
Overall, it looked like these patterns may not be the most clearly laid out. I also didn’t see any explanation about the optional beading in either pattern; it’s just a square on the colorwork chart, and not even mentioned in the Notions section on the Moonbeam. So I knew I would need to look up how to do that because I like the beading addition. I decided to not stress too much over the pattern before my yarn arrived; I was hoping it would be fine once I started actually knitting.
ASTRAEUS SWEATER
***UPDATE 10/7/20: The designer released a pattern update today that addressed and corrected basically every single concern or critique that I had with the Astraeus Sweater pattern. I am so impressed with the updates, and all the added detail.
***I am leaving my original post unedited because I want to still share my experience knitting the sweater, but the issues I have with the pattern have been resolved with this pattern’s revision.
***I am updating my star rating below to reflect the new updates.
This sweater looks so pretty to me; it reminds me a lot of the Ixchel by Catherine Clark which I had looked at before, but had decided not to make. Both sweaters are beautiful and have a celestial vibe. The Astraeus has mostly yoke colorwork and a little bit going down the body, and the Ixchel seems a little more complicated with almost full color work throughout the entire sweater.
Cast On + Ribbing
I used the German Twisted Cast On and 2×2 ribbing like I’d used in my Favo Sweater because it’s stretchy and I like the look of the ribbing. I decided to knit my ribbing longer than the pattern called for, so that I could fold it over and seam it. I really like the look of a rounded/folded neckline, so I ended up knitting 2.5″ of ribbing.
I didn’t do a gauge swatch since I was making a larger size — I figured that I would be happy if it ended up bigger/looser, but I’d also be fine with the fit if it was smaller/tighter.
Neck Shaping
I chose to do the optional neck shaping because I like to have a clear front and back to my sweater. I think it’s more polished and gives a better fit.
Doing the short rows was pretty easy. I did reference back to my Magnolia Little pattern for more explanation of what to do since I’d used it before for short rows, and liked the instructions.
I used my stitch markers to mark the turns and help me see everything more clearly. I wasn’t sure if I needed to do a dedicated knit round to resolve the wraps, or just to resolve them as I went around my next row. I’m just not that familiar with the process and the pattern wasn’t specific on that, so I just worked the next increase round and resolved the stitches at the same time. My yarn is pretty dark which helped to hide any imperfections, but it all seemed to work out — my stitch count was correct, so I think it was a success for me overall.
Colorwork and Increases
Colorwork – Jogless Join
I noticed on some of the test knits I saw on Ravelry, that there was a weird gap in the colorwork on one of the crescent moons and in the contrast row stripe right after the third increase. It seemed to line up with the BOR right down the middle of the sweater back. I really didn’t like the look of that so I started researching why that was and how to avoid it.
When you knit in the round, you’re basically knitting in a spiral. So, when you change colors and get back to the beginning of the round, there’ll be very visible “jog”. It looks like a stair step and your stripe/patern doesn’t connect. It’s actually not hard to avoid, I discovered — here’s the video I found the most helpful:
I actually noticed that I had already made this mistake in row 10 of my colorwork. One of my stars looks a little wonky :/ so I made a point to mark my pattern on rows that the pattern begins and/or ends with the contrast color — that’s where you need to do the jogless join.
I wish the pattern mentioned this jogless join technique. It makes a huge difference to the appearance of the colorwork. Maybe the pattern assumes this is basic, but even some of the test knitters didn’t know/didn’t use it, so I think it should be mentioned at least.
Colorwork – Floats
Knitting the Tundra Jumper was my first colorwork sweater; it uses three contrasting colors and is knit from the bottom up. The Astraeus is so much easier for me because it only uses two contrasting colors and it’s knit top-down. It’s a lot easier to manage only two colors, and I can be a lot cleaner with my floats.
The Astraeus doesn’t have a ton of super long floats, but I carried my color if the gap was greater than four stitches. I love the way my yarn color choices contrast; the gold looks super crisp against the inky blue. However, while I was knitting, some of the blue dye stained my fingers! I was concerned about the color transfer since I’ve never experienced that, and I was worried that the color might transfer during blocking.
Increases
The pattern says to do M1 increases throughout, but M1 isn’t defined anywhere in the glossary or abbreviations. There are also extra definitions that aren’t mentioned anywhere in pattern. I think this would probably be confusing to a new knitter.
Starting the colorwork, I used my US 7 needles on a 14″ cord. I moved up to a 22″ cord after the first increase, and then needed a 30″ cord after the second increase. I really like having my interchangeable needles for projects like this — they just really make it easy to swap out what you need as your project grows or decreases. I could have stayed with the 30″ cord, but after the third colorwork increase, I connected my 30″ cord to a 8″ cord for some more room before dividing the sleeves.
The pattern suggests a 20″ cord for the body, but I’m not sure that would work for the larger sizes. I like my knitting to feel comfortable, and I find that when I’m doing colorwork, the stitches need a lot more room. I want a cord that’s big enough to where I don’t feel like I’m fighting to keep the stitches from popping off the needles.
Increases – Sizing
I joined my 30″ and 22″ cords together to be able to try on the sweater and check the sizing. I was on track with the suggested dimensions in the pattern’s diagram sketch, but I was a little worried about the fit. I still had ~2″ to knit before splitting the sleeves, but the yoke was already at my armpit. I ended up continuing in pattern since I felt like there was enough positive ease that it wouldn’t feel restrictive even with the yoke coming down a little further over my shoulders/arms.
Adding Beading
I ordered a little mini crochet hook to help me with adding beads. Since there isn’t any explanation about adding beads in the pattern, I found this YouTube video that teaches how to do it.
The Astraeus pattern calls out that the beads used are size 2.0 mm. I already had a lot of little 2.0 mm and 3.0 mm seed beads from making my bracelets and I was excited to use them in this project too.
Once I got to the part in the chart that called for a bead, I used my mini crochet hook to pull the yarn through. This was a struggle for me since it seemed like my beads were too small to comfortably add. I managed to work two beads on in pattern before I decided that it just wasn’t worth the effort to add beads. I was frustrated because I spent a lot of time trying to make it work.
Eventually, I tinked it all back to remove the beads, and decided to make bracelets instead! I made two cute little ‘Astraeus’ and ‘Moonbeam’ bracelets with blue, gold, and white seed bead accents. I think they look super cute, and they made it easier for me to continue knitting without being upset about the time I spent on trying to get the beads to work.
My beads were the 8/0 seed beads that are 3.0 mm in diameter, but the hole is 1 mm. I think the pattern must be requiring the hole to be 2 mm in order to add the beads more comfortably. I couldn’t find the kind of beads specifically mentioned in the pattern.
Separating the Sleeves
I was really excited to separate the sleeves and put some stitches on hold. With all the increases, my stitch count was really high and each round was taking me ~30 minutes.
I was a little apprehensive abut how the pattern would carry on when the sleeves were separated. I thought maybe there would be a wonky repeat or gap in the colorwork, but the pattern really impressed me.
The pattern didn’t explicitly say to do it, but I did my backward loop cast-ons under the arm in the colorwork pattern colors. Obviously this is what the pattern intended, since the colorwork connected/continued flawlessly — but I wish it would have been a little more clear in this section. Either way, that’s the kind of detail I am looking for in a paid pattern — I want my stitch counts to be accurate and the design to be perfect.
Completing the Body
After putting the sleeves on hold, there’s a bright yellow highlight to instruct you to finish the body’s colorwork. In fact, there’re two yellow highlighted instructions in this pattern and one uses all caps and four exclamation points. Low key, it feels like I’m getting shouted at. I guess it’s doing it’s job as a callout, but I prefer a heading change, or a “NOTE:” or bolding.
It looks like the pattern gives you two options for finishing the body — just straight down, or A-line shaping. You definitely need to read through the whole pattern before knitting because the option is not clear as you go.
Once I completed the colorwork chart, I chose to just knit straight since I’d already made it a larger size and I didn’t need it to flare out. I tried on my sweater and ended up only knitting to 13″ including the hem to get the fit I wanted. I knit a 2×2 ribbing, and used Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off for a more stretchy finish. I also took this time (before I started on the sleeves) to weave in the ends, and seam the neckline.
The A-line shaping (not the straight down instructions) does have directions to move on to the hem, which is assumed to match the neckline, but it doesn’t specify; and there’s no mention of the bind off. If you are a newer knitter, or just haven’t made a sweater before, this may be confusing/easily overlooked.
Yarn Yardage for the Body
After completing the body piece, I had used three skeins + a little of a fourth skein for the main blue color and ~225 yards of my gold color. The pattern doesn’t differentiate how many yards you need for the main color vs. the contrast color, but there are separate yardage estimates for each color listed on the Ravelry page.
According to the Ravelry page, just one skein of contrast color (240 yards) is needed for all but the two largest sizes. I only had the sleeves to go, but I was pretty sure that I would run out of the gold yarn. I wasn’t too worried because I had bought enough yarn for my niece’s sweater too — and I knew I could just borrow some yarn from hers if I needed to.
Completing the Sleeves
The ‘sleeves’ section of the pattern describes how to taper the sleeves and finish the cuff, but there is no mention of adding colorwork once the sleeves had been separated — except briefly on the title page when talking about the sweater’s construction. :/ I had seen the other test knits do colorwork on the sleeves and I planned on doing it as well; it’s just weird that it’s not mentioned under the sleeve section.
I used my shorties needle set to be able to work the sleeves in the round. I put my held stitches back on the needle and picked up the cast on stitches under the arm, but my colorwork pattern wasn’t lining up. For my size, I needed to pick up an additional two stitches than what the pattern called for in order to keep the colorwork sequence. Like I mentioned, the pattern doesn’t say to pick up stitches using the different colorwork colors or to even continue the colorwork in this section at all.
Colorwork Yarn Yardage
Halfway through my colorwork on the second sleeve, I ran out of the gold contrast color. I suspected that might happen when I finished with the body with not a lot gold left. I think something must be off on the yardage estimates on Ravelry because my one 250-yard skein should have been sufficient for my size, or either of the three sizes larger than mine. Luckily, I had another skein that I’m using for my niece’s Moonbeam sweater to borrow from.
Tapering the Sleeves
After I finished the colorwork chart, I tried on my sweater and the sleeve was already to my elbow. The next instruction is on how to taper the sleeve. I was really disappointed with this instruction in general — there are no measurements or stitch counts (even on the diagram in the back), and no description of how to do the decreases for the tapering. When I buy a pattern, I want the pattern to do the work and explain what I need to know — when should I start to taper the sleeve? how should I do the decreases? approximately how long should I knit the sleeve before starting the decrease? These directions were vague and basically “do what feels comfortable”. I love knitting and customizing a garment to fit my body, but I expect more from a paid pattern.
I started a modified decrease after the colorwork because I thought decreasing every other round sounded like a drastic decrease. I did a decrease every five rounds; here’s what I did:
Decrease Rnd: K1, K2TOG, knit until last three stitches, SSK, K1
I wanted more of a sweatshirt fit, so I was ok with a more boxy sleeve, but I did want it to be more fitted at the cuff. After four of my more gradual decreases, I did the pattern’s every-other-round decreases until I had 44 stitches. From there I knit until I was comfortable with the length and then switched to smaller needles for my 2×2 ribbing. I used Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off here as well.
I like the length of my sleeves and the colorwork continuing down, but it’s not my favorite sleeve ever. I don’t blame the pattern for that though. Since I chose to knit a larger size, the shoulders were already large on me and made it so the sleeves didn’t need to be as long. So the decrease in the pattern could probably be fine on a fit that has less positive ease. For me, I wish I had started a more gradual decrease sooner and then just taken it all the way down to the cuff. I completed one sleeve that way, so I was committed to mirroring it for the second.
Finishing
There isn’t a dedicated section for completing the hem or binding off. I tucked in my ends and sewed up the small holes I had under the arms. I am lightly blocking now to just smooth out the wrinkles since I really love the fit already.
ASTRAEUS – OVERALL THOUGHTS
The pattern assumes that this isn’t your first time knitting a sweater, and it doesn’t go out of the way to explain things — like adding beads, or completing the hem/binding off. The pattern specifically calls out that it’s meant for an Intermediate skill level, but it didn’t mention that on the Ravelry Project Page.
I love the colorwork moon pattern in the Astraeus Sweater and that there is a matching child version (Moonbeam). The yarn I used is beautiful and really makes the design pop. However, I didn’t find this pattern to be the most clearly written. When a pattern isn’t free, I hold it to a higher standard; I expect things like layout to be better and I expect the instructions to be clear. You saw the little areas that I thought could be improved in this post; it’s not a huge deal, but I think this pattern could use some more clarity.
Obviously, I was able to make the sweater, so the directions were fine, the colorwork chart was good, and the stitch counts for my size were accurate (except for picking up the sleeves). I really love my sweater — I wish the pattern was more clear and detailed — but I am still happy with the result.
I do appreciate the additional Cowl Pattern, but I would sacrifice that if it meant everything else could be organized better.
MOONBEAM SWEATER
This little Moonbeam sweater is so cute. I really love my Astraeus and seeing it in a mini version is so sweet. This pattern was included with my Astraeus sweater, but you can also just buy it separately. I think this will be so cute on my niece; I can’t wait to see her wear it.
Cast On + Ribbing
I cast on with the German Twisted Cast On and knit the ribbing from the pattern. I had two full skeins of the dark main color and a small amount left over from knitting my Astraeus, and then most of the one gold skein. I cast on using my US 5 needles on a 8″ cord.
I knit the 25″ size since my niece is already really tall for her age and maybe she’ll have a little room to grow.
Yoke Colorwork
After the increases, I moved up to my 14″ cord and started the colorwork. The pattern has two colorwork charts — one for small sizes and one for large — but it doesn’t say which applies to which size. On the Astraeus Ravelry page, the designer showed her Moonbeam where she used the large colorwork chart for the smallest size Moonbeam, so I think either chart will work for any size.
I wanted to use the large colorwork chart since it more closely matched my Astraeus. I really appreciate how the Astraeus and Moonbeam patterns are similar, but different. It keeps the colorwork feeling fresh, especially for me knitting both sweaters back-to-back.
Dividing Sleeves
Knitting the yoke was super quick and I was excited to already be separating the sleeves. But the stitch count for the 25″ size is wrong in the pattern which was pretty frustrating. I knit across, held one sleeve, knit the front, held the other sleeve, and finished the round like the pattern instructed. The next round was a colorwork round in the contrast color only, so I used that round as an opportunity to count my stitches and reposition the stitch markers to match the colorwork chart. But when I finished the round, I was short two stitches.
So, I went back through the pattern to see what went wrong. I think the cast-on stitches for the 25″ size should be corrected to 18 — that keeps the pattern symmetry and equals the final stitch count the pattern says you should have. I was disappointed, but tinked back the two rounds to correct the cast on stitches.
Even after dividing the sleeves, I was still able to knit comfortably with the 14″ cord which made it nice to continue without swapping cables.
Finishing the Body + Hem
The colorwork on the Moonbeam seemed to fly by, especially compared with the Astraeus. Keeping count of the shorter pattern on a smaller sweater was so fun and fast. Like I mentioned, I chose to knit the larger colorwork option to better match my sweater.
I was loving the star and moon pattern on these sweaters and was inspired to paint my nails a deep sparkly blue with an ombre glitter top coat to give a matching celestial vibe.
Colorwork Conflict
The pattern was a little confusing for me once I’d finished all the colorwork. I went back to the first instruction page (where it said to “Complete the Moon Chart”), and it said to continue with this second colorwork chart until my sweater reached a certain length diagonally from the cast on edge. This was so weird to me since I’d already knit way past that when I completed the yoke — but then I realized that that direction must only apply if you chose to knit the small colorwork option. Definitely confusing for me at first.
Once I understood that that section didn’t apply to the 25″ sweater, I moved over to the Body section. Like I mentioned, the heading is at the bottom of one page and the actual instruction starts at the top of the next — and there aren’t page numbers, so it’s a little hard to follow when you’re swiping back from the colorwork chart.
I was happy to see a little more detail on the Moonbeam sweater with regard to the hem and binding off stitches than with the Astraeus pattern. I knit my ribbing and used Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off again for a comfortable hem.
Sleeves + Cuffs
I used my mini interchangeable needles for the sleeves; I am really happy with these needles. I’m okay with DPNs but I prefer a circular needle whenever possible. These needles also work with my regular interchangeable needle set so I can swap out almost endless combinations.
Getting started with the sleeves was tricky. I had read through the pattern and saw that it specifically called out a colorwork chart to work on the sleeves which was great. But I could see that the number of stitches that the pattern says to knit wasn’t going match the colorwork chart. This mini colorwork chart wasn’t so detailed that it would be a huge deal, but I thought it was odd not to pick up enough stitches to divide into the chart evenly.
I ended up picking up a few more stitches, so I could match the colorwork chart and not have to worry about the pattern being weird.
Sleeve Decreases
There is a lot more direction on tapering the sleeves in the Moonbeam pattern than the Astraeus which I really appreciate. I started the decreases halfway through the sleeve. The pattern explains how to do the decrease, but doesn’t say a stitch count for the wrist/cuff. I don’t live close to my niece so I had to figure out what would be comfortable based on a rough measurement.
Cuffs
I like how the pattern clearly has a section for the cuff ribbing and switching needles. Of course, I used Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off again for a stretchy fit.
MOONBEAM – OVERALL THOUGHTS
The Moonbeam is the cutest! I love how little it is and how the colorwork really pops. I felt like this Moonbeam pattern was more detailed than the Astraeus, but is still slightly disorganized. I did have some issues as you saw, but the sweater came out super cute.
ASTRAEUS + MOONBEAM FINAL THOUGHTS
I love both of these sweaters. Now that it’s October, this sweater gives the perfect moody, celestial vibes. I’ll definitely be wearing mine all fall/winter. And I love this mini Moonbeam version; it’s super sweet and I think my niece will love it.
You saw my thoughts about the patterns’ layout and clarity/errors — It’s frustrating when something you paid money for isn’t right. You do get a lot of extra charts/patterns with this purchase so I do think it’s a good value, but I would trade all of those extras if it meant the two sweater patterns were perfect.
As I’m writing this, it’s almost one year since I started knitting my very first sweater. Even though I’ve knit some different projects and feel pretty confident starting something new, I’m really just getting started knitting. That’s why layout, organization, and pattern clarity are really important to me.
I really love the actual sweater results. Both were fast and fun to knit, and the colorwork charts weren’t very complicated. If you’re already pretty comfortable with knitting sweaters and want to introduce colorwork, I think this would be a good pattern to test your skills. The two-color colorwork doesn’t have super long floats, and you can learn each row’s pattern quickly.
Astraeus Rating
I thought it would be fun to create a rating system to compare all the patterns I’ve knit.
***Rating revised: 10/7/20 due to revised pattern release.
Layout = ★★★★☆
Organization = ★★★★★
Clarity = ★★★★★
Value = ★★★★☆
Final Product = ★★★★★
WHAT’S NEXT
I hope this post was helpful for you if you’re knitting these sweaters or thinking of purchasing this pattern. Check out my Ravelry page for more pictures of my Astraeus and Moonbeam Sweaters, and to see what I’m knitting next!
