Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Gingerbread Baby Sweater

This is my first posting to the Red Sweater KAL, and I'm so glad to have been invited to join. This is a great KAL!

Last night, in a flurry of knitting, I finished the Gingerbread Baby Sweater. I originally got the idea for this sweater from Jan Brett's wonderfully illustrated book, The Gingerbread Baby. I emailed her through her website, and I got a nice email back giving me permission to title my sweater after her book. She even asked for a copy of the pattern!

If you have little children, I'd highly recommend this book. It's a wonderful story and the illustrations are simply beautiful. I just love the accurate details of Jan Brett's drawings . . . . but enough of that.

Here is a close-up picture of Matti (a character in the book). Isn't he wearing an adorable sweater?

So, without further ado . . . . (trumpets and drum roll, please) . . . .

I introduce to you, The Gingerbread Baby Sweater! It is an original design, and I hope to have the pattern up on my sidebar soon. I am so pleased how well this turned out! (That's saying a lot, since I usually have something to complain about with all of my knitting.) My only regret is that I cannot seem to get a good picture.

You might notice that the sweater looks a bit snug on my daughter. The sweater size is 6-12 mos. I actually knitted the sweater for my newest nephew, Jacob, who is still an infant, but I had to get someone to model the thing, so my tiny Breanna had to do. She's 14 mos. old, but this 6 mo. sweater almost fits her!

The pattern was a bit tricky for me to figure out, because the one of the cabled braids is on the side of the sweater and travels up the underarm. Since I've never knitted a sweater in the round before, this was a new learning experience. I'm still not entirely sure I did it "according to the book", but I think it turned out alright in the end.

Basically, this sweater is knit on circular needles to the arms, and has set-in sleeves.

Now I can't wait to knit another one that will actually fit my little Breanna!

If you'd like to stop by my blog, it's http://alohaknitter.blogspot.com

I'd love to hear from you!

1 comment:

New Jersey Laura said...

This sweater is gorgeous! Jan Brett's illustrations are so beautiful. What a great idea to knit the sweater from the book. You did a beautiful job. I'll bet that Jan Brett loves the sweater, too:)