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Baby Classic

Writing today is my break from hand-washing our hardwood floors.  Much to my embarrassment I cannot remember the last time I got down on my hands and knees and washed the floor.  I remember now why I don't do it very often, moving furniture, cleaning the pieces, scrubbing the floor and replacing everything is physical work.  Today the kitchen got a very thorough cleaning.  Tomorrow it will be the family room and Wednesday the dining room.  All this fun simply had to be spread over a few days!

So to today's update.  Currently I am on a sweater or jumper kick.  These large items have been avoided for a long time because of the disappointment when all the time, money and effort it takes to make an adult sweater leads to things that doesn't fit.  After Knitting Camp and measurement taken by Susan I felt it was about time I knit a sweater for myself.  But to ease my way into it I decided to knit a baby sweater first.  Frankly I find having one or two baby sweaters around useful for quick gifting.

These pint-sized versions of an adult sweater are great to work out gauge and finishing techniques.  So I decided to knit a vintage sweater called  Baby Classic Sweater from Free Vintage Knitting.

I didn't find a date on this photo but one can image it was from the 1940s or 50s

As you can see it has a stand-up collar and includes a reenforced button band and a very quick decrease to the ribbing on the sleeve.  I love the vintage look and the fact it can be customized to suit a boy or girl by duplicate stitching either a sailboat or flowers on the body made it perfect for my purposes.

I chose sock yarn for this project.  It is superwash meaning the new mom doesn't have to fiddle with hand washing a garment, just throw it into the washer on gentle and either machine or air dry it.  The two yarns were Deborah Norville's Serenity Sock yarn in the colour Navy and leftover yarn from my Clapotis - Sweet Georgia's Bulletproof Sock yarn in the colourway Rust.

Although it is called  navy I find the colour to be more charcoal gray
The Sweet Georgia yarn in the Clapotis

And here is my nearly finished object.


One side is sewn up with the other in process.  The buttons have merely been placed in the button holes so you can see them.

It seemed to need this small patch of colour at the side in ribbing.

And a close up of the two-tone collar and the button.

The vintage pattern lacks the type of detail someone new to knitting might like, but it was fine for me.  My touches of individuality worked out just the way I hoped and the buttons from my stash seem to tie everything together.  This will be ready to go whenever the need arises.  Now it is time to tackle an adult-sized sweater.

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