February Baby Sweater!

I saw this gorgeous baby sweater made with handspun yarn, and suddenly I knew what to do with some of my handspun yarn as well. Baby knits!

" Some Babie's Things" from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac - February

yarn: my own handspun: merino/sea cell, 2-ply, 4oz, 1 skein/ 364yds, color "Sea Leaf" from Dyed in the Wool Handmade, with left overs for booties

needles: 3.75mm circular needles, 5 DP's for the sleeves

start-finish: after the two shawls I wanted to knit something fast, but cute, and this was it, April 3-4

This sweater is soft and cuddly, exactly what you want your baby to wear, when you hold it in your arms. And before you even think of asking, no , there's no baby on the horizon in our family. I just think it's a great way to knit some of the handspun, because it gets boring to knit hats, mittens, or scarves all the time. Ooooh - it just hit me! I made a garment! I made a top down sweater! I made something to wear!

Never mind that it is April already, this sweater is called "Baby sweater on two needles; practically seamless" anyway. Mine is totally seamless, which is really a good thing. I knit the sleeves in the round, and picked up stitches to connect them to the main body. This sweater is so much fun, and EZ to make, I'm definitely going to make this one again. This little cutie has been knit countless times, in all kinds of variations, mine is without the gull pattern. With this yarn, there's no need for lace patterns.

Using my handspun was fun, but I'm not impressed with my spinning skills.The yarn was thick and thin throughout, and as you can see not even washing and blocking evened it totally out. Doesn't matter, still love it.

There's no actual baby I knit this for, rather a big Teddy Bear, who welcomed the expansion to his wardrobe. Sitting there in his orange Baby Surprise Jacket, he thought was too girly anyways, made him quite happy with this green new sweater. I don't know what size this sweater would be in actual baby size. I made the body longer, because I had enough yarn (there's still some left over, maybe for some booties?), and because I like how it looked better.

It was not off to a good start however, since I didn't follow my own advise, to read a pattern through before starting to knit, so I was way too far, when EZ told me to put in some button holes. Of course there should be button holes! At first I thought, oh well, I'll start with the buttons after the garter stitch yoke, and fake a button without a hole on top. Yes, that was my first thought. >shame<>

If I had used this yarn for socks (way to soft for that), they would have made nice stripey socks, you can see that on the sleeves. I seriously think the brown stripe on the front is ugly, but that's how it is. Everything else blends together nicely.

I didn't want to get out and buy some cute baby buttons, for a sweater which will maybe never warm a baby, so I rummaged through my button boxes, which are in desperate need of refilling. I think the ones I found will do.

What's on my needles now? "Have a Heart" socks by Marianne Archer (almost done though).

Any spinning done lately? Yep - after a break for two weeks (while knitting the shawls I did nothing else), I've started spinning my Cotswold again. Remember, I had 1kg of it, have half of it done. Nope, doesn't get boring, even with the natural grayish color. Love it! A bobbin a day, keeps dust bunnies at bay.... or something like that.