Sleepy Lisa.

Not sure if anyone is still bothering to check my site - its been ages since I’ve posted. I’m now fully settled in Austin. And I’ve been busy knitting up baby sweaters - for baby girl Fischer, expected this September.

The first sweater completed is the Elizabeth Zimmermann “February Baby Sweater” from her Knitter’s Almanac.

I borrowed this book from the Austin Public Library and boy has it been around the block a few times. It was stamped with due dates all up and down the inside cover - dating from the early ’70’s. A little mind blowing to be using a book that is older than me to make a sweater for an unborn baby.

I used Knit Pick’s Shine Sport in Hydrangea for this sweater. I ordered about 12 balls of this yarn back in October to make a sweater for myself, but I’ve come to the realization that it just wasn’t going to happen. And the cotton is so soft, sproingy, and shiny, I thought “why not” and used it for the February Baby Sweater. The yarn was a little splitty, but other than that, knitted up perfectly.

I used a modification I found on Austraila blogger Linda’s site - rather than the garter stitch yoke, I used her notes for a stockinette stitch, raglan yoke - which I much prefer (after having first tried out the garter stitch).

The second sweater, also in Knit Picks Shine Sport, is from Debbie Bliss’ Special Knits. Its the “Ribbon Edged Cardigan” minus the ribbon edging.

I omitted the ribbon edging because I couldn’t find any ribbon that I liked. I found one ribbon that would have been cute - a ruffled white ribbon, but thought it would be too itchy to put around baby’s neck. So, instead, I opted for really cute bunny buttons. Who doesn’t love bunny buttons?
The other modification I made on this pattern was to use short rows to shape the shoulders rather than the bind off method written in the pattern. I tried the bind off method first and just hated the way it looked when seamed together. So, I ripped it out and did the short rows instead with a three-needle bind off - much more clean looking. The super nice thing about baby clothes is how it doesn’t hurt too much to rip out since they are so tiny to start with.

Other knitting news - I’ve ripped out my “We Call Them Pirates Hat“. I had taken such a long break between the second and third pattern repeat that when I finally picked it back up again, my tension was off. The pirate skulls on the third repeat were almost a third larger than those of the bottom two. Knowing that I would never wear a hat that looked so crappy (and Gord would never wear a purple and green hat, even if it did have pirates on it), I ripped it all out and rewound the balls of yarn (yummy cashmerino). So, now they’re waiting for inspiration again.