5 hour baby sweater

My DD was here yesterday, and we had a wonderful time together! We did a little shopping and a lot of talking. She left some RH Fiesta baby pink yarn and after some consultation, I started on a 5 hour baby sweater. It's been awhile since I've knitted this one, and I'm having lots of fun. I'm also keeping track of my time, just curious to see how close to 5 hours I get. So far I am 3 hours in, and have knitted the yoke and 3 rows of the body. I think I will knit the sleeves in the round, if I can do them without loose stitches at the ends of the needles.

Do you know how many 5 hour baby sweater patterns are on the internet? I was amazed to find so many. Some versions are identical, others have only a tiny change here or there. Even the names are changed. Some are called Quick or Quickie Sweaters, some are Weekend Sweater or 5 Hour Sweater.

The biggest difficulty in knitting this sweater is understanding the difference between increasing in the next stitch and M1. This pattern uses both kinds of increase, and you will mess up your stitch count if you don't use the kind of increase the pattern states.

I am using Lorraine Major's version, Quick Baby Sweater, and have had no problems.

Here's a very complete version on the Fiber Gyspy Page: 5 Hour Pattern complete with matching booties, hat and optional hood. This one is very good, and includes a good explanation of the different increases, and a bit of the pattern's history.

Here's one that's a pdf version Quickie Baby Sweater with a very nice picture.

Bev's Country Cottage has a version posted here: Weekend Sweater or 5 Hour Baby Sweater with links to more versions of the sweater.

If you've seen all the pictures, and want a simple plain text version, try this one from woolworks.org, 5 hour Sweater

Gail has a nice hat knit in the round to match here:Hat, and a version of the sweater that is a bit more masculine here: Boy Sweater.

This sweater is easy to knit, once you understand which increase you need to make. It was originally developed to use 1 skein of worsted weight yarn. Since skeins are now 3.5 oz instead of 4 oz, I would suggest you start with 2 skeins and indulge in a hat or hood and booties to complete the set. The finished sweater looks a bit boxy, but will actually fit a baby for quite awhile.