childHood

November 2011

Here he is, the man himself, my son George... I can't help feeling that had he not arrived 8 days early, he'd have a heck of a lot more knitwear.

I'm an avid reader of Knitty, and I'd had my eye on childHood for some time - I actually thought I'd end up making it as a gift for someone or other sooner than getting pregnant myself. Funny how things turn out.

I adapted the pattern rather a lot. I wanted to make a set of coordinating pieces, and as the other patterns I had in mind for this were designed for dk weight yarn, I modified childHood by following the instructions for the 1-2 year old size. The logic was hat since the schematic for childHood showed the 0-3 month size had a 20" chest, and my gauge with the dk yarn was 22 stitches to 4", I would need roughly 110 stitches to get a similar size with a dk. As it happened, the 1-2 year old size started with 114 stitches if you added together the back and front sections, so it seemed ideal. This is what comes of reading Elizabeth Zimmermann!

I also shortened the hood by about 2" after reading a lot if comments from people how had found it a little on the capacious side. I find it a very useful piece of clothing to have on hand as the hood allows you to make sure the baby's head is covered even if you mislay his hat.

The only slight gripe I had with the pattern was that the button band has to be sewn on, and that's a bit of a faff, but then again, I hate sewing, and it probably wouldn't bother most people. Actually I did manage to make life slightly easier by working the fronts and back all in one piece, and the sleeves could be worked in round too, by anyone who has mastered the jogless stripes technique (so not me, then...)

Pattern: childHood by Natalie Wilson from Knitty, Summer 2003

Yarn: King Cole Big Value dk

Amount: 2 skeins MC, 1 skein CC

Colourway: 221 Pebble (MC) 46 cream (CC)

Needle: 3.5mm

Size: 0 - 3 months

On raverly: here