… isn’t a bad thing for a girl to grow up to be but was also the colour scheme (according to the yarn company names for the yarn) for the latest baby jumper I knitted. The yarn is Rowan RYC Cashsoft DK, which is my go-to yarn for baby clothes. It’s soft, snuggly, machine-washable, reasonably-priced and holds up well to washing.
The pattern is the Seamless Kimono Sweater. The pattern for the 3-6 month size is available for free or you can buy the pattern for newborn up to 6 years. I made a few changes to this pattern. I worked a few rows of garter stitch at the neckline, and worked this and the cuffs and bottom edge in a contrasting colour; I braided yarn for a tie instead of i-cord and I worked paired leaning increases for the raglan for a nicer (in my opinion) line than the kfb in the pattern.
The irony here is that this kimono-style jumper was knitted in the UK for a baby girl in Japan. It was only after I had finished it that it occurred to me that this was possibly a “coals to Newcastle” type situation and I should maybe have knitted something else. I’ve just received a lovely thank-you card and note though so it seems it was appreciated anyway.
I have mixed feelings about this pattern (which seems to be a theme around here at the moment). Again, I wasn’t terribly keen on the way the pattern was written. For example, the list of materials doesn’t explicitly say that you need 4 ply yarn for the embellishments and cord, which left me thoroughly confused when I started making i-cord with DK-weight yarn that clearly wasn’t going to fit through the eyelets. (I ended up braiding three strands of DK yarn instead.) The designer’s note in one section about how the instructions had “caused some people significant angst” also rubbed me up the wrong way. The instructions are not complicated but they’re also not intuitive so I can understand why people were nervous about just following them without being able to “see” what was going to happen.
Having said all that, there is no denying that the finished jumper is absolutely adorable and I can see myself making many, many more of these.