Swift Gifts

After completely spacing the fact that a friend is having a baby girl due for arrival next week, I figured I better get on the sticks and get a gift knit! *what* to knit was the question - especially since it needed to fly off the needles fast! Bored of booties and washcloths, I opted for a baby set...and since I abhor pink and the local yarn shop had limited colors available, I opted for yet another lavender project.

Patterns: Miss Dashwood, from Knitty and the Five Hour Baby Sweater

Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease - which I hear is being discontinued! For ease of care and because summer is here - if not coming soon!

Comments: on Miss Dashwood: Even knit on smaller needles, the fabric of the hat is rather floppy and lacks structure. I did modify the pattern by leaving out the ear flaps - the hat is destined for a baby that resides in the south, so I don't think ear flaps will be necessary. For the ties, I single chained some yarn instead of going with an i-cord since I can't i-cord neatly to save my life - they always look wonky, so I have decided to reserve i-cords for projects where it doesn't matter - like felting :)

On the Five Hour Baby Sweater: well, I modified that one too, deciding to go with a single button closure at the neck instead of ribbon or i-cord or full button down front. I'm not certain I got the pattern completely right since I had a hard time understanding just what was called for when it read: "insert needle under next horizontal loop of row below" - first I thought, "M1 increase", but what came off my needles didn't seem to match the photos - then I thought "lifted increase", which looked a little closer to the photograph, but still not quite right. Oh well, I think the sweater still looks adorable, and who can resist when all it has for seaming is the length of the arms?! My only qualms are that the neck is too small - the good news is the neck is very stretchy; and the other is that I bound off too tightly on the wrists - I thought I bound off loosely, but there isn't as much stretch in the finished product as I would like. Ah well. And for those of you who are wondering, it really is a five hour baby sweater - I think I finished with all seaming and finishing in under five hours.