11/22/07

It's Easy Being Green

I present to you, The Peapod Baby Sweater:

This is the serendipidous gift that I mentioned last post, sans buttons. I loved this yarn at first sight when I saw it at Webs during Stitches East in October. The color seemed perfect for this IK pattern. Typical me, I grabbed the worsted instead of DK weight. Playing fast and loose with gauge did not work. I may have to submit to the rules from now on. Any way, I'm hoping that it's newly intended recipient can fit the sweater this winter. It's about a 9 month size with the gauge of the yarn and having knitted some elements from the 3 mos. and 6 mos measurement or stitch count.
The pattern...pretty as punch. When I picked it out I was hoping for a mindless and quick pattern. IMHO, it should have been. Wasn't. Grrrrrr. I was able to follow the leaf chart just fine. The bottom rib was another story. Between it's chart and the written directions, I couldn't follow either. I felt abandoned after the first row reading "...continue in pattern...". Uh, huh. Pattern my eyelets. Maybe it's me. I do like things spelled out for "quick" projects, but it was just not very clear. After much novice knitter mojo, I came up with this for working the bottom rib section:
Row 1 K2, p1 (*p7, k2, p1)*
Row 2 P2, (*k1, p2, k3, p2, k2)*
Row 3 (*p2, k1, y o, k1, p3, k2, p1)*, k2
Row 4 P2, (*k1, p2, k3, p3, k2)*
Row 5 (*p2, k3, p3, k2, p1)*, k2
Row 6 P2, (*k1, p2, k3, p3, k2)*
Row 7 (*p2, [k3rd st, k first two sts tog, drop all three], p3, k2, p1)*, k2
Row 8 P2, (*k1, p2, k7)
I worked it out on a scrap swatch and it definitely looks like the photo.
Sigh. Now that I've gone through pattern grief, I can definitely say that I'd like to do it again...
with the correct weight of yarn.

11/12/07

Verdant Baby Gear

I seem to be drawn to the color green for baby gifts.
Nature, vibrant, fertile -green.

Here's a little cardigan from the Minnies pattern book by Jil Eaton.
This 3 month size was knit up in Classic Elite's Angora Lush. How spot on are it's Beatrix Potter buttons! Rabbits...angora... What a match!