Friday, February 8, 2013

Modular (No Sew!) Baby Sweater

A few months ago, Made in America Yarns and I had a little chat about designing some patterns. They particularly needed some baby things. They sent me yarn, and for some reason, their American Lamb in pink and purple variegated screamed to me, "Baby Sweater!"


So I set to work. I don't know how I thought of making this sweater, to tell you the truth, but sometimes ideas just pop into my head, and I work with them. This particular idea was to make a modular sweater. I started out wanting it to be stockinette, but the math just wasn't working and the pieces didn't fit together smoothly. Rip, rip, rip. I switched to good old garter stitch.

The sweater was a ball to knit. I designed it during a vacation to Disney World, and I have to say that the pink and purple yarn just seemed at home with all the princesses that were walking past.

To make it, you start out by making a center front and then a center back panel. Then you pick up stitches along the sides, using slipped stitches as a finishing edge (just as you do for my log-cabin blanket pattern), and you knit toward the side seams.

When you get to the width desired, you put the stitches on a holder. You pick up for the shoulder seams, and use a 3-needle-bindoff to join them.

Then you take the sleeve stitches off the holder and knit the sleeves out. (They are knit extra-long so that the cuffs turn up. I envisioned it both ways, and I couldn't get past the idea of turned-up cuffs.)

When that's done, you pick up the stitches under the arms, you put the side stitches back on the needle, and then you do one, big 3-needle bindoff under the arms and down the sides--and voila! Your sweater is finished!

(By the way, the pattern has a typo. The baby sweater takes 2 skeins of American Lamb, not one. I blame Yarn-Fumes for this oversight on my part.) 


I loved working with Made in America's American Lamb yarn! On top of feeling great, it looks great! The variegation was super-cute for this project, turning into mini stripes.

It was a happy knitting day when I saw my work up on their website. You will find the free pattern on their website here. Or you can get to it via Ravelry.

Thanks for inspiring me, Made in America!