Baby Ensemble

Over a year ago in 2022 I knit a baby sweater. This was well before our first grandchild was conceived, but at the time I was looking for a smaller project using yarn I already had on hand. I knew I would be able save it for a future shower gift.

I used a free pattern from Ravlery, New Baby Cardigan, with 50% Acrylic / 40% Wool / 10% Nylon Berrocco Vintage Chunky yarn. This pattern is knit from the bottom up in one piece, with the neck and front bands added on by picking up stitches.

I can hardly remember now, but based on the backgrounds in the photos below I believe they were taken in hotel rooms on the way home from Arizona. The first one shows a few inches at the bottom of the sweater.

The next photo shows the knitting split for the sleeves, with some shaping added at the center front.

The shoulder seams were joined after the front and back were done. Following is a photo showing stitches picked up for a sleeve.

I had to make adjustments due to using thicker yarn than the pattern was designed for. I thought I had done it correctly, but after completing the sleeves, I could see they looked a little too short in relation to the width. It was not supposed to have 3/4 sleeves!

Many sources came up on the internet when I looked up “average child sweater measurements”, but the numbers were all over the place. It was not always clear what they were measuring. Were they measuring an actual child or clothes for a child? Sweaters have different types of sleeves, so where were they measuring from? I gave up on that and decided it would be a good idea and not very hard to make the sleeves longer.

It was easy and quick to rip out most of each sleeve and start over. I did the math to refigure out how many rows were needed to get the right length, and when to do the decrease rows. The new version looked more right.

Stitches were picked up for the neck ribbing, and finally I hand sewed a length of grosgrain ribbon on the inside of the front band where the buttons would be attached. It was not part of the pattern, but seemed like it would give a better foundation for sewing the buttons on and provide some shape.

I liked this pattern because it looks good for either a girl or boy, and did not require sewing any pieces together at the end. However all the picking up of stitches to knit on the sleeves, front band, and neck band caused a ton of ends to weave in, not my favorite thing either.

I was very happy with the final result. I like knitting cute child size clothing, because they get done faster, so you can move on to another thing. And if you make a mistake (likely in my case) it is not such a big deal to re do part of it or even the entire project.

This winter in Arizona, I saw some baby size blue jeans at Target that had ruffles on the pockets and were about the same denim color as the sweater. I bought a pair along with a onesie to go with it, creating a cute ensemble. I enjoyed my shopping at Target since we don’t have one anymore in the town where we live in Minnesota, which is a bummer. I used to shop there regularly when we lived in the Minneapolis area.

Minnesotans especially love Target since it started here. Target was a spinoff of a local department store, Dayton’s. Eventually Target got bigger than Dayton’s and became the parent company. Target then acquired Marshall Fields and rebranded the Dayton’s stores, and later Macy’s bought Marshall Fields. Dayton’s is now history but Target is still successful on its own. Following is an older photo in front of the downtown Minneapolis Dayton’s store with the Mary Tyler Moore tossing her hat statue on the sidewalk in front.

This sweater has been finished for a long time, but I had been waiting for the right time to write about it. In the meantime, last winter we found out about our granddaughter who was born this summer so finally I had someone to give this ensemble to.

The blue hat in the photo I knit out of the same yarn earlier is for a bigger child than the sweater. I gave the sweater, onesie and jeans to my daughter-in-law at the baby shower in the spring. The baby is now six weeks old, too small to model the outfit. I hope she will be the right size in the fall when warmer clothes are needed. Meanwhile, I have been on to other spinning, knitting and weaving projects.