Baby Ready

Thank you to all of you who commented on my sweater. I'm really very pleased with how it turned out and am a bit bummed that I can't wear it every day (I've got to keep it nice at least until I get through the photo shoot and then send it off to Knit Picks). I'm hoping to get decent photos taken this weekend as well as find time to finish working out all my numbers and write up the pattern so I can send it off to be laid out and then to my tech editor.

In all of the excitement of finishing up that project, I completely forgot about the wee baby sweater I finished way back in the middle of December. It sat in one of my knitting bags for several weeks until the other night, when I finally remembered to pull it out for a wash and block.

Pattern: Gramps Cardigan by Kate Oates, 6 months size
Yarn: madelinetosh tosh dk (100% superwash merino) in Cousteau, approximately 1.25 skeins
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) and US 6 (4.0 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: December 5/December 16, 2012
Mods: pretty much the same as for this sweater

This is now the third time I've knit this pattern, and while I still like it, I'm pretty much convinced that it works better for the larger sizes than for the smallest. The pattern has supposedly been updated since I last knit it, but I didn't spot any changes in the size I was making. I think my issue is more that with the small size, the decreases "eat up" the cable motif much faster than they do in a larger size. That's not really a fault of the pattern; it's just a by-product of trying to incorporate cables into a garment with so few stitches.

This particular iteration of the sweater is for my cousin's baby, who's due to make his or her arrival very shortly. This will be a baby born in Chicago in the winter, which is why I made this sweater in the smallest size. Normally I'd make something that would fit at about a year of age, but this kid is going to need to be kept warm! My cousin and her husband decided that they didn't want to find out the sex of the baby ahead of time, so I had to go with a fairly gender-neutral color. I tend to like babies in vibrant colors, so I thought this gorgeous blue/green would be neither too girly nor too boyish. As with the last time around on this pattern, I used just a bit of the second skein of yarn, so I'll have to figure out something to do with the leftovers. I might even whip up a quick hat to go with the sweater, if I can manage to do it in time.