Knitting is something I do in frenzies. Sometimes I don’t touch the needles for months, sometimes it takes me months before I can put them down again. Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of the latter. In an attempt to get through the ever-growing stash I dug up some yarn. Then I tried to match a pattern to that yarn. A children’s sweater. One with some fair isle work.
I left the orginal chart for what it was, and replaced it with dinosaurs that I drew myself. It’s amazing what you can achieve with some checkered paper and google images. Although next time I should make sure to use an A4 notebook, instead of messing around with A5.
Dinosaurs. Brachiosaurus for the front and back, stegosaurus for one sleeve, and a triceratops for the other sleeve.
In case it’s not clear yet: dinosaurs are part of the daily routine here. If it was up to our little boy, there would also be a T-rex and a pterodactyl on this sweater, but I was lacking the space. Grow, little man (not too fast, though!).
The sweater pattern is rather simple. It’s a straight body, and there’s hardly any shaping that needs to be done for the sleeves. The result: a very high eighties vibe.
I made size 4, but in hindsight, size 6 would have been a better choice. The sweater is rather short. Doable, but our boy will have to wear a longer shirt underneath it. Guess that adds a high seventies vibe as well.
According to the pattern, both shoulder seams needed to be finished with buttons for this size. Now, I know that babies and toddlers have rather big heads, but that big that they would need the full width of both shoulder seams to get their heads through, that seems a bit much. So I only used buttons on one side, and I sewed the seams on the other side. Snowman buttons, since I didn’t have (the patience to go and buy) any dinosaur buttons.
I’m pretty satisfied with the result. Sure, a larger size would have been better. And yes, it is very obvious this is a self-made sweater. But that just adds to the nostalgic feeling.
How about you? Do you only knit during the autumn and winter months, or do you knit the whole year through? Or do you only use knitting needles to scratch your back?
