5 Hour Baby Sweater - for Bean

I finished the yoke in Bean's 5 hour baby sweater. The sleeve stitches are on strands of scrap yarn, and I'm working slowly down the body of the sweater.

Now that I've seen Bean recently, I have my doubts that this will fit him for any length of time. It's only 21" around the chest, and the yoke is 6" at most.

I like the seed stitch that overlaps in the front; it will go over Bean's head and I won't have to mess with the knitted or crocheted button bands of a cardigan. I could have put a 4th reverse stockinette ridge, but I didn't know how many more rows I wanted to knit before dividing the stitches.

Bean's Green Booties

Bean has outgrown the booties and socks I made when he was born. I decided to use the same EZ pattern for booties to match the BSJ, from "The Opinionated Knitter".

I enlarged the pattern by using Woolease and #5 needles, the originals were fingering weight and #4s. These boots measure 4.5" and Bean's foot is not quite 4". Maybe they will last till Christmas.

I crocheted ties with a double strand of yarn, attaching the tie at the center back as I made them. Each tie is about 11" long, enough to tie a firm bow.

The next project is a hat to match. I'm using the hat to match the BSJ, also from "The Opinionated Knitter". Green Woolease, #5 needles, very slow going at this point.

5 Hour Baby Sweater - revisited

I'm knitting another 5 hour baby sweater, this time for my 6 month old grandson, Bean. I knit slower than I did when I made a 5HS in 6.5 hours. This one will take 8 or 9, I'm sure.

The picture shows my progress after Saturday night's hockey game, minus time for a sandwich, then popcorn. I guess it's about 1.5 hours and 119 stitches. I'm not knitting on these dpns. My #8 circ is small and the stitches were mushed together, so I slipped it onto the dpns for the progress picture.

As usual, I'm not following a single pattern, I'm combining ideas from 2 or 3 patterns to get what I want. I am writing it down in my notebook, so I can reproduce it if Diametrag wants another.

I started with Gail Bable's Baby Boy Style 5 Hour Sweater, and took another idea from a 5HBS knitted as a pullover. I liked the purl ridge on Gail's sweater, but expanded it so I have 3 rows of reverse stockinette stitch, separated by 5 rows of stockinette. This spacing allows me to do my increases on a knit row, and avoid increasing on a purl row.

I also widened the 3 stitch border to 5, and changed it from garter to seed stitch. A regular 5HBS starts with 33 sts, increasing to 139 sts over 30 rows. Since Bean is 6 mo. old, with an 19" chest, I started with 49 stitches and plan to increase to 143 stitches, but am keeping the same 30 rows. I may have to change that plan, but I will measure him next weekend and decide then.

I plan to knit the yoke in rows, and knit the body in the round for a little pullover. I will bind off one of the 5 stitch borders and sew it down, making a little placket. It will give enough room to slip over his head; I have plans to knit 3 buttonholes in the placket.

I'm using TLC Essentials, Barn Red and #8 needles. I'm getting about 4 sts/inch, which should make a sweater big enough to go through the winter.

I also got a hint from Diametrag that Bean needs a new hat, preferably one with earflaps. Seems my little Travelling Man needs warm duds for the early morning ride in the car. Knitting Gramma to the rescue! I'll start an earflap hat this afternoon, 5HBS can wait a week.

More Bibs for Bean

I had a request from Diametrag for more bibs, and here they are. She said they fit well, and I made two more just the same.

I used Sugan 'n Cream kitchen cotton, #9 needles and 33 stitches. They ended up about 7" square. They might shrink when they are washed, and if she needs more, I'll cast on a few more stitches.

This size is pretty good, because I got 2 bibs from the green variegated skein of Sugar 'n Cream. The label says "New Super Size" and weighs 85 g (3 oz).

I have also finished 2 hats for the hospital. Both are plain k2p2 rib. I'm having a bit of trouble controlling my tension when I knit. I can't believe I'm knitting tighter than before, rather than looser. Who would think you'd need more strength to knit loose rather than tight? That's what my problem is, and so I'm sticking with plain k2p2 ribbing because that makes the stretchiest hat.

I got to see Bean over the last weekend. Oh, he is so sweet. He is almost 7 months old now, and starting to get mobile. He's crawling; getting faster every day. Now he's started pulling himself up on furniture and anything else he can grab.