I made my sweaters from scraps of Rowan Pure Wool Superwash Worsted leftover from the Martin Storey Afghan KAL and the Kaffe Fassett KAL. In the model sweater above, I used a fourth color for the back, but the pattern is written for three colors. This is meant to be a real scrappy sweater and as long as you make gauge and use a soft, machine-washable yarn (it’s for baby after all), you can be thrifty and raid your stash using 3, 4, 5 or more colors. The color possibilities are endless and I can't wait to see what you come up with! If you would like a summer sweater, I suggest Rowan Handknit Cotton or Rowan Softknit Cotton. Both will give you gauge and both are machine washable.
I've sized Gingersnap for one year, which is my favorite size to knit for baby. Hear me out: At one year old, babies are sitting up, walking about, smiling and laughing, clapping their hands, and generally causing a lot of commotion and attention to themselves, and thereby, giving a lot of attention to your nice sweater! I'm also going to size this for an 18" doll because I love to knit for dolls and know a lot of my readers do too. Give me a few weeks for that, so stay tuned. Gingersnap is available as a free download on Ravelry. If you don't belong to Ravelry, it's free, so sign up right away! This pattern is suitable for a beginner.
Even a baby sweater deserves a bit of fine finishing attention. The direction of your increases and decreases make a difference in appearance, see the neck decreases above. The pattern explains which way the decreases should go so they will be neat and tidy. Professional looking seams, below, take a bit of practice, but they are easily achieved. This sweater is a perfect project to practice your finishing techniques. YouTube has some excellent video tutorials.
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| Close up of the sleeve seam. |
Get your free Gingersnap pattern here.
The yarn is Rowan Pure Wool Superwash Worsted
in colors, Granite, Gold, Soft Cream and Moonstone on the back.
The colors used in the sweaters below are Candy, Charcoal Gray and Soft Cream
and Gold, Bottle and Soft Cream.
