I knitted this garment in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino which is very squiggy and soft to work with and will be super soft on a baby. The advantage of it is that is machine washable. Although I usually only knit with 100% wool, I think for babies (and in particular for baby gifts) its important to think about whether it can be machine washed or not.
I don't like knitting purl as I find I go too slow so I knitted the cardigan in the round on 3 DPNs and a knitting belt (of course!). I cast on 5 extra stitches to form the steek at the front of the garment. This photo above shows the cardigan just before I discovered I had run out of the main colour. I ordered it nearly 3 years ago just after my baby boy was born, I was only getting back into knitting and had a plan for it but can't really remember what that plan was! I thought I had 3 balls of denim blue but only could find 2. So, I bought a lighter blue shade, ripped the yoke back to below the beginning and added in another row of the navy pattern to define the start of the yoke.
Once it was finished it was time to cut the steek. I machined a couple of rows of stitching each side of the central stitch ladder to reinforce the stitches and to make sure nothing unravelled.
The steek was then cut:
The raw edges were trimmed very close to the machine stitches and a ribbon was hand stitched over it on the inside of the button bands to finish the garment.
The finished cardigan.
This design is very topical at the moment, the lambing on my Dad's croft has just finished yesterday.
A Shetland sheep with her triplets
Black and white twins
Cute!
