The Naked Knitters

Well, progress has been much slower than I expected, but the February Baby Sweater is looking very cute! I've been having a hard time focusing on my knitting recently (gasp!) Don't worry, I think I'm still winding down from my knitting frenzy at the cottage a week or so back. Luckily, the Feb. Baby Sweater is the perfect project for someone with knitting A.D.D. I raced through the garter stitch yoke in about half an hour, then a sleeve followed shortly after in the next half hour. It is worth mentioning that Elizabeth Zimmerman designed this sweater to be as quick and simple as possible (like so many of her other designs). The sweater is nearly seamless, the sleeves being the exception; as these are barely 5" seaming will not be a large undertaking. After the two sleeves are knit from the yoke, the body is joined and knit down to the garter stitch edging along the sweater bottom. Garter button bands are knit into the garment, and do not require picking up of stitches. The lace motif is just about as simple as it gets, instantly memorizable! All in all, if you're looking for maximum cute for a minimum investment of time and effort, this just might be the baby sweater for you.

I chose to use Jo Sharp Silkroad Tweed DK - a yarn that is currently 40% off in the store. Hem hem. This pattern does not provide conventional sizing, instead you control the size of your garment by changing your gauge. I'm making this sweater for my niece who is 9 months old, and through some creative figuring, I decided that a DK yarn would give me the perfect not-too-big-not-too-small size that I needed! I am using 4.5mm needles, in order to get a gauge of 20 stitches in 4". This is slightly large for a Dk weight yarn, but I want her to be able to grow into this sweater a little bit.

Thats all the news I've got for now. Hope to see you at the Summer Knitting Club meeting tonight!