FO: Baby Cal sweater
Firstly, check out Manisha’s version of my Stripey hat pattern, her colours are gorgeous!
Secondly, thanks for all the encouragement in the comments a few days ago to finish the blue baby sweater. I went ahead and finished it, and blocked it, and embroidered a likeness of the Cal Berkeley logo on it with a simple chain stitch, am am extremely pleased with the results! The slightly larger front was hardly noticeable, and it ultimately accommodated a very nice baby belly.
There is a saying in Hindi – daane daane pe likhaa hai khaane waale kaa naam (every morsel has its eater’s name etched on it). This sweater, it turns out, was fated for a wearer other than the one I first intended for it. One of my oldest and best friends unexpectedly visited me this past weekend with her daughter, who is quite plainly and simply the world’s cutest baby, and who gurgled and giggled her way into the sweater and my heart. It fit her perfectly, and her mum took away an extra skein of the Inca Gold to add length to it as she grows taller. The only challenge was getting her to be still long enough to take pictures of her in it!
Project Specs:
Pattern: Toddler Tunic by Staci Perry of verypink.com (.pdf link).
Yarn: Berroco Inca Gold, pure wool, in 6425 Azul Marina.
Needles: Size 6 (4mm) addi turbos.
Size: 21 inches chest circumference, 12 inches total length, 5 inches armhole to sleeve, 7 inches armhole to bottom.
Gauge: 5 spi.
Notes:
Babies are hard to knit for! You’d think it’s easy to size baby knits because nothing has to be form-fitting, but sizes and intended ages vary so wildly that it was very stressful trying to figure out just how many to cast on and what length to aim for. I think for the most part one can err on the larger side because they’ll eventually grow into the clothes, but this is not very helpful if you are making something out of wool meant for warmth and by the time the next winter rolls around the baby has outgrown that size altogether. Some patterns are written with 3-month spans (9-12 mths, say) and others, like this one, 12-24 months which seems pretty wide, no? I was aiming for a 9-12 months with this pattern. As it turns out, my gauge was correct, and it fit 8-month-old Mira like a comfy weekend college sweatshirt right now, but her mum assured me it would fit for several months more in width, if not in length. So I am relieved, and am going to use these notes as a guide for when the next baby sizing panic hits me.
Now I’ve cast on with a different yarn and pattern for the baby this was initially meant for. I had thought this would be my spring of socks, but so far it is turning out to be quite the baby knits marathon, which I am enjoying a lot more than I thought I would – despite the fact that nearly all are variations on a seamless raglan theme, there’s a lot of nice baby patterns out there!
