A first sweater for my little little guy

So my little little guy keeps growing and growing. I'm more than halfway through this pregnancy already (24 weeks...I think?) and I've just entered the phase where my belly is growing faster than I can adjust so I've been bumping into the kitchen island, the footboard on my way to the loo a zillion times per night and the other day I even closed the door on my belly ;0)



So it was about time I started working on the little guy's layette! He'll have plenty of hand me downs from his brother but they will be born in different seasons (Julian was a summer baby) which means that Julian's itty baby clothes (0-3 month) won't be warm enough for little little guy due in March. So I'm planning some knits. Some fancy, some practical and some both. I thought I'd start with a 'practical' project for anyday wear -- the classic sweater and footsie leggings from Erika Knight's "Simple Knits for Cherished Babies." I started the sweater last week and just finished it. Really, it couldn't be a simpler knit. It's all knit in one piece with a big 'ole hole in the middle for the head.



My only pattern modification was to graft the sleeve seams rather than sew them. Well it sounded like a good idea at the time, but in retrospect was probably more trouble than it was worth. I was almost done grafting the first sleeve when I noticed this. Huh?



Yeah, that's 3-ish stitches on the front needle, 6 on the back and one really weird messed up loop at the beginning of the front needle. I still don't know what happened there. I undid the whole thing a few times and was able to get the stitch number to match up again on both needles, but that loop? Well I just darned it in. Shhhhhhh ;0)

Oh, and a note about the yarn... The Jaeger Cashmere the pattern called for has been discontinued (plus, I wanted a 'practical' knit so cashmere would have been too high maintenance for this project) so I sought a good substitute. A quick web search revealed lots of great substitution ideas: Dale of Norway Baby Ull (100% merino, machine wash AND dry!), Baby Cashmerino, and Filatura Di Crosa 501. I settled on the Baby Ull because everyone seemed to be thrilled with this yarn but I must say that though it is so buttery soft that it is hard to beleive it is 100% wool, my stitches are really uneven with this yarn and it really bothers me. It improved somewhat after a Eucalan bath and a good blocking, but not enough to my liking.

And of course I have tons of it left over! The pattern called for 3 balls of the Jaeger and I expected to sub ball for ball so I bought 8 (I'm also planning on making matching leggings which call for 3 more balls and decided to get a couple more just in case -- don't look at me like that, I got a deal on ebay!). Thing is, this yarn has unbeleivable yardage...I ended up using only 1 ball and maybe 25 yards of the other to finish the sweater!!!

So now for the leggings...

Oh, and to answer Ellen's question from the comments a few days ago (Hi Ellen!), I bought my copy of the "Sirdar Nativity Collection 285" leaflet from Country Yarns. The good news is that it looks like they still carry the leaflet (scroll down) and they ship to Canada and the US. Hope that helps ;0)