Welcome to the Flock

August 2013

This is a recently published pattern which caught my eye because I know how useful a matching hat and cardigan set is for a newborn baby. I have a friend who is expecting her second in December, and so I seized on the excuse to whip one of these up. It's so tiny that it only took a week or so, and it's lovely to be able to get a matching set from one ball of yarn. Also, there is something irresistible about knitted sheep.

We don't know whether it's a boy or a girl yet, but with this set it doesn't matter in the slightest - it would be ideal for either. I think I have enough of the green left for a pair of bootees, if I can find the time before he or she arrives.

I wish I had used wool or at least a wool blend, because I think it would have responded better to blocking than the acrylic did. I bought this yarn is the search for a perfect dinosaur green when I was about to embark on this project. In the end I found something better, so it’s good to have finally used it up.

This pattern would make a nice basis for other motifs of around the same size too. I must see whether I can dig any out. Ducks on a blue background spring to mind. 

It's a very simple seamless dk pattern in which the sleeves and the body are made separately up to the armpit, and then they're all moved into the same needle. There are three decrease rounds in between and above the sheep to make the yoke, and the buttonband and neckband are picked and up worked in 1x1 rib afterwards.

Pattern: Welcome to the Flock by Julia Farwell-Clay from Moth Heaven
Size: 0 - 3 months
Yarn: King Cole Big Value dk
Colour: 11
Amount: 1 skein
On ravelry: here