I’m generally not one to reknit patterns, reread books or rewatch movies. That said, once in awhile I come across one of the aforementioned that warrants repeating. And repeating. And repeating. I can’t get enough. It’s the reason I’ve watched National Lampoons Christmas Vacation 400 times, memorized most episodes of Sex and the City and Seinfeld and it’s the reason there is always at least one Elizabeth Zimmermann’s baby sweater on the needles. Mostly the Baby Surprise Jacket (the surprise gets me every time. Seriously, how does that strange stretch of fabric become a sweater?!), but also the February Baby (or Lady!) Sweater.
There’s just something about that gull stitch pattern that makes this sweater fly off the needles. There’s enough to it to keep my interest, but it’s not so taxing I can’t multitask or memorize the pattern. And the garter stitch yoke / lace body combination makes the sweater appropriate for any season, isn’t too girly, and has that little extra something. Add to that the potential to make beautiful yarn sing even louder (it’s science) and you’ve got a pattern worth repeating (and repeating).
I think this might be my third version?
I started this sweater for G back in January 2015 with some yarn I picked up at a going out of business sale at a LYS.
Some notes (and apparently a timeline of sorts):
- The sizing is mostly improvised and very much haphazard. I started with the Lady Sweater Pattern instead of the Baby Sweater and just sized down a bit more than the pattern specified, both in terms of stitch count and needle/yarn size.
- That I was running out of yarn dictated much of the execution. Picture me knitting a few round of each sleeve, eyeballing how much I’d want to save for the sleeves, rinse, repeat, etc. No food scales or calculators or math were used. Just a knitter jumping in with both feet and a deep sense of hope.
- For a few seconds, I either thought I had enough yarn or was in denial that I would surely run out. Regardless, I forged ahead hoping that teeny ball of yarn would last forever. (It didn’t.)
- Somewhere in between denial and hope, I cast off the sleeves telling myself three-quarter sleeves were “good enough.” I also started the ribbing along the bottom of the sweater body and was several rounds through before I did finally run out of yarn.
- I sucked it up and looked around for more yarn. I had lost the ball bands, so it was one part determining which yarn to buy, one part finding the yarn to buy.
- I found the yarn, but shipping cost more than the yarn itself so I let the WIP languish for awhile hoping my problem would go away (I do this a lot. In general. Not just with yarn. PS. It doesn’t work).
- I eventually sucked it up and purchased the yarn and let it sit for a few months. - Motivating myself to unknit the several rows of garter stitch on the sweater body was too much and the ball of yarn languished until last night.
- Meanwhile, Greta keeps growing yet the sweater remains the original size I started over a year ago.
Now that I picked this back up, I’m kicking myself for taking so long to do so. Why does that happen every time? Will I ever learn?
Still unknown is a) whether or not this will actually fit Greta when it’s finished (good thing I have three nieces who will give it the wear it deserves!) and b) if I’ll find the motivation to unpick the bound off sleeves and make them a proper length, or c) if I’ll find the buttons I bought way back when I started this sweater.
With that, I’ll leave you in suspense. Stay tuned!
PS – Two blog posts in as many days? Who am I? 2006 Kelly?
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