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Monday, July 02, 2007

Finished: Aidan's Red Sox Sweater

Is this not the cutest sweater ever?

Pattern: Loosely based on the Seamless Raglan Baby Cardigan by Carole Barenys
Yarn: Reynolds Soft Sea Wool (100% wool) in color 0569 (navy; two skeins) and color 0263 (cream; about one-fourth of a skein); Dale of Norway Baby Ull (100% superwash merino), color 4227/red, one skein
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) 32" Addi Turbo circular
Started/Completed: June 20/July 1
Recipient: baby cousin Aidan

This sweater was such fun to knit. It's intended to look like a throwback Boston Red Socks jacket, much like this one. I adapted the pattern to accommodate the striping at the neck, around the cuffs of the sleeves, and around the bottom of the body.

The yarn was part of my purchase at the big Knit One sale, mostly because the blue was the right shade. The Baby Ull had to do for the red portions since there was no such shade available in the Sea Wool. I found that it was a tad bit thinner than the Sea Wool, however, so I doubled the Baby Ull in all of the striped areas.

The Sea Wool was absolutely delightful to work with. I'd purchased much more than I thought I'd need, just to be on the safe side, but I ended up using far less (less than two skeins total) than I'd anticipated. It's not the most ideal baby yarn to work with in that it's not superwash, but it's quite soft and has a great "sproinginess" to it. I now find myself with three full skeins of the blue and most of the skein of cream to make some socks for myself.

By far, my favorite part of this sweater is the socks on the back:

I'd originally intended to place these on the left front of the sweater, but they were really overpowering there, so onto the back it was. Before sewing them on I gave them a good steamy press with the iron to flatten them and set them into shape.

The buttons are some neutral faux horn ones that came from my button stash. I'd toyed with the idea of using buttons in the shape of little baseballs, but in the end I decided that would have been overkill. I think these work much better with the classic/throwback look of the sweater overall.


I couldn't be happier with how this sweater turned out, and I can't wait to see little Aidan in it! (I've already given explicit instructions to my aunt on this matter.) I'll be wrapping this up and sending it out to him the next chance I have to go to the post office, likely sometime this coming weekend.

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The weekend was a blast. I'll be catching up on sleep for at least the next week, but I had such a great time I don't mind. I'd especially like to thank the Pirates for playing such a good game and winning for once and Bob the usher, nicest guy in the stadium, who sent me over a Yuengling. I don't want to go into too many details (J and occasionally my parents read this blog, after all!), but suffice it to say that much yummy food was consumed and my lingerie drawer is now fully stocked.

By the way, does anyone want a Bob Walk bobblehead? I have three.

12 comments:

  1. Squee! That is the CUTEST little sweater! Those socks on the back are just precious!


    Sometimes we ride the bus into the city, and on the last bobblehead night we attended, someone was buying bobbleheads on the Clemente Bridge for $3. We should have taken him up on it! We try not to go to too many giveaway games because how many bobbleheads does one residence need? I've seen families of 6 get 6 of them! I'm hoping that they can win on Sunday, but I'm not expecting it. We were watching the game tonight until the bullpen blew it, as usual!

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  2. So cute! I love the little red sox on the back -- they're perfect!

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  3. Anonymous11:05 PM

    So cute and SO PERFECT looking! What a great gift! It's a treasure!

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  4. As I look out my windown onto Fenway Park, I have to say sweater is THE cutest!

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  5. I will have to show this to my husband -- the Red Sox are his favorite team! It's such a cute sweater. :)

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  6. those little socks on the back are squeal-worthy! ;P what a cute sweater for a little sports fan.

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  7. 1. GREAT sweater. You do amazing work!

    2. Bob Walk bobbleheads, huh? Cracked me up when the report was that "between 100 and 7,000 fans walked out for the third inning" Geez, guys. Take an actual guess, won't you?

    Glad you had a great weekend. See you in two weeks! :) a

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  8. my boyfriend will DIE when i tell him about this. he is the world's largest sox fan. actually, perhaps i shouldn't tell him about it ...
    great work!!!

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  9. Anonymous1:36 PM

    What a great sweater! The socks on the back are perfect!

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  10. Absolutely adorable!!

    Congratulations on knitting the cutest Red Sox sweater EVER!

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  11. That is painfully cute and I'm not even a Sox fan. lol! That little Aidan is a lucky little boy!

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  12. OMG! That sweater is the cutest thing ever. Seriously. I can't wait to see it modeled.
    Great job! It looks an awful lot like the jacket my husband wore back in the 70s and which my sons still wear today.

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