I'm so excited! I get to be a test knitter for Julie Kieliszewski, who has written a new child's sweater pattern called Little Copernicus. It's a sweet cardigan with a picked up and knitted 2×2 rib trim to finish it off. It's very cute and I'm hoping the little wooden buttons I have in my stash from Peace Fleece will be the perfect accent.
I'm using Elliebelly Pixie (superwash merino), in the Stained Glass Paintbrush Colorway, for the sweater.
I did my Paintbrush Colorways with linen stitch (for instance, these gorgeous baby longies by Siobahn) in mind, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to see how it performs in a mostly stockinette project. If I don't like it as well, it will be easy to convert the body of this pattern over to linen stitch, so I think it's a low risk proposition.
Although I rarely swatch for a baby sweater — they're going to fit at some point, right? — I decided I need to do that here, to insure that as a good tester, I provided necessary input. And, I hit gauge, spot on, at my first try on size 7 needles, getting five stitches at inch.
Many thanks to my assistant, Harry the Maine Coon Cat, who helped to hold the swatch out flat so I could measure it. He had no ulterior motive and did not proceed to pounce on it or try to chew my needles into two pieces immediately after the photo was taken. Really.
I did a very small swatch, really just barely enough to get the gauge, so I'm not sure yet about this yarn in stockinette. I'm tempted to say it's going to be very pleasing, but I don't want to jinx it. I'm hoping it will be the perfect gender neutral color, with enough variation to coordinate perfectly with just about anything else a baby could want to wear.
It looks like it’s going to be very nice looking.
I’ll be following to see how this turns out because I might want to make one for Leighton Grace (our newest grandbaby).
karen: i think it’s a great sweater — easy to knit so far, although i always stress about picking up tons of stitches to do an edging. I love doing the sleeves attached and it the round the — oh the thought of all that seaming i don’t have to do! i think you’ll like this one, and if you like the yarn, i may have enough left for a second one in a small size.