This One's a Hoot

I am not going to let myself go crazy with newborn projects, but I can't resist a little bit of fun. In this case, "fun" equates to the Newborn Vertebrae cardigan pattern by PEKAPEKA design studio. I hesitated at first, because an essentially frontless cardigan doesn't seem very practical to me from a warmth standpoint. But when I read why it's designed that way (great for skin-to-skin and also less likely to be soiled by spit-up), I decided it was worth a go.

This was a relatively quick and easy knit (certainly easy for a sweater!). I accidentally knitted a few extra increase rows, but left them in -- partly because I'm lazy, and partly because I'd rather have it a bit too large than a bit too small. 

I made the sleeves a bit shorter than the pattern called for, and also decreased a few stitches near the cuff. I did make a mistake in the ribbing on one cuff (acidentally knit two instead of one, which resulted in a purl two to resolve the problem), but since it was hardly noticeable I left it in. I'm human, after all. 

The yarn is lovely -- SMC Select Extra Soft Merino Alpaca, which I found at Tuesday Morning. They had so many gorgeous yarns, including some English wool that was hard to pass up! But I'm *trying* not to build an enormous yarn stash (so far, I've been only partly successful). It created a unique texture that I haven't encountered in my knitting before, and I'm wondering why? Hopefully you can see in the photo below, because I don't know how to describe it other than that it's not the typical "V" stitch, but more like stripes with diagnoal stitches in between. Perhaps I did something wrong, but I like it!

I mistook the yarn for fingering weight when it is in fact DK. *cough* While it may have knitted up a little tight (it didn't feel tight, though!), the needle size I was using fit into the recommended range from the yarn label, so I'm not too worried.  

The body of the sweater might also be a tad shorter than called for -- I incorporated the owl pattern from Brenna Kotar's Hoot Cardigan (so glad I found one knit top down!), and 5 owls fit in perfectly (perhaps it's a good thing I increased too much at the top, so I had a few extra stitches to work with).

I added a few stitches to just one owl on the back, as a little detail. 

Hopefully this will keep our newest family member cozy when he makes his appearance next year! Still on the menu? A blanket (in the works) and a hat. I'm not going to let myself knit endless hats, as tempting as it is. But I had to do just one -- especially when that one has cables and looks like an old-fashioned aviator helmet. Too much to resist. Not that I'm trying...

Raveled here.