Baby Cardigan

It’s always fun to knit something for babies. They are cute and knit up fast. I knitted this cardigan in four days, and I’m not a fast knitter! All I have to do now is to decide which buttons to choose…

The pattern is the “Baby Sweater on Two Needles, Practically Seamless” from Knitter’s Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann. …I know this cardigan doesn’t look like EZ’s at all, but all I changed was that I knitted mostly in stockinette stitch instead of the lace pattern, used two colors, and did increases in yarn-over.

The reason I did so was that I wanted to use the yarn my mother and a friend gave me sometime ago for this project. I had almost two balls of light blue yarn, and one ball of white. I figured if I made the yoke in stripes and the cuffs in white, I would have enough blue for the body. However, when I finished the sleeves and started to knit the body about an inch, it was obvious that I wouldn’t.

(Original Baby Sweater, the yoke and the cuffs in two colors.)

I tried to knit the rest of the body part in stripes, but it looked really odd…so I unravelled it and changed the plan, and the result is the first picture. I think it worked O.K. The yarn is Japanese yarn, Puppy’s “Super Baby.” It is very soft!

Now I have started to knit a baby blanket.

It is Alphabet Blanket from The Baby Knits Book by Debbie Bliss. The yarn they used in the book was discontinued (Debbie Bliss Wool Cotton… I didn’t know that! I liked the yarn.) The suggested substitute by the Debbie Bliss web site was Baby Cashmerino.

Since I’m not much of a fan of Baby Cashmerino (I like a little more woolly-looking yarn), I looked for other options. I was ready to splurge on the yarn for this blanket, because it was a special project for me. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I couldn’t find the yarn I liked in my LYSs, and I ended up with the sale yarn…Peru Luxury DK from Little Knits. It’s matte and soft, and has a slight halo from the Alpaca. It’s not as stretchy as Baby Cashmerino and not superwash, so maybe it’s not the best choice for a baby blanket, but I think I like it.

I hope to finish the blanket by August. All of my previous baby knittings were for gifts, but these are for me… We are expecting a baby in August!