On the Saturday of the last bank holiday, my wandering around Warwick market took me past Warwick Wools and a very pretty window display showing lots of blue and white stripes and the latest Sublime baby knitting book.
They were waiting for a re-stock but one week, a message on my answerphone, and a craving for more French bread (and those really nice scrumpy scotch eggs) later....
Well how could I resist? I mean really, the cuteness, and the sailor collar. I've always loved sailor collars; one of my very last summer Sunday-best dresses that Mum made was dark blue with white pin-head spots and a huge wide sailor collar with dark blue ribbon around the edge; it may have been a Railway Children phase or something but I thought it was wonderful.
This is the first Sublime pattern I've ever knit and it's going OK so far, although I have made a few amendments and done a bit of ripping and re-knitting. Don't you just love that the rip and do over in baby things takes an evening or so; unlike the trauma and medication (chocolate and a nice glass of wine) inherent in frogging anything big person sized.
I knit the back pretty much to pattern, and then started on the front. This is the left front
and that little skinny stripy is supposed to sew all the way up along one edge and across the top. Yep, not going to work is it. The idea is that you knit all the way up the front and straight onto the collar and then the two sides of the collar join with a seam down the centre back.
I'm knitting the 0-6 month size which I suspect is going to be a bit nearer the 0 than the 6, and the nearer we get to the 0 the more I think it would be horribly uncomfortable for a little baby to have even a squishy seam running down their back so I cast on at the start of the stocking stitch part and knit to the collar cast on on each and then worked from the left front, cast on the collar stitches less two for the eliminated seam, and then straight across the right front so my collar is all in one piece.
To add the edging I picked up stitches all the way around the edge, knit the garter stitch rows and cast off. It does mean that there is an extra blue row on the edge of the front than on the back, but I don't think it's going to be obvious unless you really look for it.
I've finished the sleeves today after a little more rip and re-knit after (a) I ran out of blue and (b) I decided that the sleeves looked a bit long anyway, so now I just need to darn in a gazillion stripy ends and sew it all up!
Very pretty. Your teddies are going to have some very lovely things to wear once Baby Bear grows out of them. Oliver had a sailor outfit, he looked gorgeous in it.
ReplyDeleteI had a cream dress with a big sailor collar. It was edged with navy ribbon and I had a straw hat with matching ribbon. I wore it when I was in my early twenties but not often because it was a head turner. I still have the dress even though I'd need major surgery to fit in it.
ReplyDeleteWill there be a little beret to go with the coat
How freakin' cute is that!
ReplyDelete