Peapods In The Fall

Another Finished Object! I’m on a roll, hey? This is for my impending grandson. The photo is a bit lighter than the true “mashed peas” colour. For some reason it wouldn’t adjust more true.

Begun: September 13, 2006
Completed: November 9, 2006

Yarn: Smart Superwash, 100% wool, 50 g = 100 m, colour 9544 (pea green), 3 balls
Needles: Size 5US/3.75 mm Denise circular, Crystal Palace bamboo dpns
Pattern: Sweater – Pea Pod Baby Set by Kate Gilbert, Interweave Knits, free online pattern
Hat – my own adaptation.
With dpns, co 70 sts in purl. Work bottom rib pattern. Continue in st st, adding 2 sts to the first row for a total of 18 sts on each needle. (72 sts) Knit 15 rows then begin decreasing. K7, k2tog around. Knit 1 row plain. K6, k2tog around. Knit 1 row plain. Continue as established until there are 8 sts left. K2tog around. (4 sts) Knit i-cord for 1 inch. Cut yarn and thread in needle, draw through all stitches and bury end in i-cord.

Comments:
The pattern calls for too much yarn. I bought 6 balls thinking that I’d make a larger size but I ended up making the smallest (3 month) size so baby could wear it this winter/spring. I only used 3 balls total. The graphs are awkward and the repeats should start in a different spot. The “at the same times” were too many! It would have been better to follow a completely graphed out pattern, but I started this on holiday and didn’t have my computer with me to work it out. I did use my Palm to keep count. When that wasn’t convenient, sometimes I used rocks and sometimes I used T-Man!

I shortened the sleeves by a couple of rows, thinking that baby sleeves are always too long. I also had a bit of a problem getting the stitches to look good that had to be skipped while picking up the neck for the collar. I fixed at least 3 of them by dropping down and “decreasing” them away with a crochet hook then picking back up to the row I was on. It doesn’t look too bad now. The buttons are a bit small but they were the right colour and I had them available. Hopefully they’ll stay buttoned and not pop out.

I decided that the hat was too lacy for a boy so I simplified it a bit just using the leaf rib and a more plain top part with a bit of a “stem”. I might use the rest of the yarn (one more ball!) to knit bootie-socks to match. Or not.

Geek alert! I thought I would mention how handy a program called Pcounter helped me to knit this sweater. It’s for Palm PDAs and is freeware. You can carry up to 16 different numbers with 2 available on screen at a time. All you do is tap the + on the screen with a fingernail (or a knitting needle!) to add an increment. It worked really well for me. There are other programs of this type for Palm, but this one is really simple and easy to use. With so many things to keep track of at the same time, I would have needed 2 regular knitting counters. And I had my Palm with me as I almost always do.

Don’t know what I’ll work on next. But not to worry, I’ll post about it!