Finished: Baby Sophisticated Stripes

Yes, I finally get to share with you yet another baby sweater that I had knitted up back in May! Yippee!! Friends of ours welcomed their new arrival a few weeks ago and over the Thanksgiving weekend I was able to finally gift them this sweet little number in person while I cooed over their handsome little man.

I had quickly cast on this adorable cardigan the second I finished the Pebbles Maile sweater. I was on such a baby knitting roll, how could I not? This project doesn't count towards my 12 in 2011 goal cause I had bought the yarn specifically for this project and therefore isn't stash yarn. After hearing just how many babies would soon be entering our group of friends Brett and I had made our predictions as to who was going to have a boy and who was going to have (another!) girl (we made the same predictions...and were right!). Realizing that I didn't have much in the ways of boy-friendly colours in worsted weight yarn, I simply just had to go buy some. That's a valid excuse for buying more yarn, right?

This tiny number knits up lightning quick, but then again it's not often that I knit with worsted weight yarns. This was my first time knitting with a Spud & Chloë yarn and I was quite surprised as to how soft and silky it is. My hands had only hurt slightly from time to time, I think it's from the high cotton fiber content in the yarn (it's 45% organic cotton, 55% merino wool), and only when I went on long stretches of knitting...like when I did the sleeves all in one sitting.

I absolutely love the shawl collar. It makes me giggle thinking about how a tiny wee baby wearing this should also be holding a wee little pipe that blows out bubbles. Yes, silly indeed! Seriously though, I've been digging the shawl collars as of late and am thinking I need to knit another project that has one. I think it's the magic of how the collar forms in the knitting of the short-rows that makes me so happy. I'm a huge fan of short-rows and seriously love it when a pattern utilizes them.

My only flaws with this project is trying to figure out how many rows to make the stripes. I basically did what I thought looked nice...then I got to the garter stitch hem. I didn't want to immediately switch to the colour that I wanted the collar and button bands to be, or it would make the last stripe too skinny and (to me) look off (which would bug the crap out of me). How anal about this stuff am I? Let's just say I had to put this project down for a whole day so that I could think it over. Crazy, I know. In the end I just started the garter hem using the colour of the last stripe before switching to the contrast colour. I don't think you can notice too much?

The other flaw is the striping on the sleeves. The sleeve hem colour doesn't match the body hem. So glad that I'm not the one wearing this, or anyone in my household for that matter, cause this little hiccup bugs me to no end. I'm pretty sure no one else notices this but the perfectionist in me. I'm getting better though, I'm not as nit-picky as I used to be (when I used to work as a technical designer...oooh, was I ever nit-picky!!) and I think knitting has really helped me with that.

Anyhoo, back to the cardigan. It took me forever to find buttons for this. Everything I saw was either not the right shade of chocolate brown, not the right size, or not the right material. I finally buckled down and chose these, which I think suits the cardigan just perfectly. I got them on sale too, half price. So you better believe that I stocked up! I definitely plan on knitting this pattern a few more times, it won't be my go-to baby pattern like the Maile pattern is, but definitely one I'll turn to when I need something a little more boyish. Speaking of which, I just found out that one of Brett's friends is having a baby in December. He thinks it's going to be a boy. I guess I'll be knitting this pattern sooner than later!

Little Old Man Cardigan Details:

Pattern: Baby Sophisticate by Linden Down

Yarn: Spud & Chloë Sweater

Colours: 7507 - Moonlight (blue) and 7503 - Root Beer (brown)

Needle: Knit Picks Harmony Wood Interchangeable in 5.0mm (US 8)

Ravelry Link: MisoCraftyKnits' Baby Sophisticated Stripes