What’s a knitter in the midst of a baby boom to do? Knit practical little sweaters, of course!

This sweater duo is designed to take full advantage of the rainbow of easy care fingering-weight yarns.

The necks open up so that big baby heads pop through with ease and playtime can resume.

The easy knits and purls motif is inspired by the “flying geese” pattern in quilting, and this pattern’s name by my mother’s favorite thing to call a goofy child…

Yarn - 275 330, 385, 440, 490, 620 yards/251 302, 352, 402, 448, 567 meters fingering-weight yarn. Blue version shown in Quince & Co. Finch (100% American wool; 221 yards/202 meters per 1.75 ounce/50 gram skein), colorway Bird’s Egg. Purple version shown in Quince & Co. Finch, colorway Crocus. Pink version is HiKoo CoBaSi (55% cotton, 16% bamboo, 8% silk, 21% elastic nylon; 220 yards/201 meters per 1.75 ounce/50 gram skein), colorway Framboise.

Needles - US #4/3.5mm (or size to get gauge) 16”/40cm circular needle for working in the round AND same size for working small circumferences (either two circulars, one long circular for magic loop, or double points).

Notions - Tapestry needle, 4 stitch holders or scrap yarn, stitch markers, 1 button for Geese, 4 buttons for Ganders.

Skill level - Intermediate (knitting in the round, increasing, decreasing, grafting).

PATTERN VERSIONS
Version 6/2/14 - Originally published.
Version 8/8/14 - Changes:

Right and left sleeve notation reversed throughout. For both Geese and Ganders, when working in the round, order of sections is right sleeve, sweater back, left sleeve, sweater front. Instructions are correct but references to right sleeve and left sleeve are often reversed.
Page 6, Geese, Begin Raglan Decreases, Paragraphs 3 & 4: Third size (12 mos) should repeat Rows 2 and 3 thirteen times more (fourteen times total). This makes the st count for the third size 88 sts total with 15 for each sleeve.
Page 7, Ganders, Shape Crew Neck: Bind off #s should be: 7 9,9,9,11,12 for both rs and ws rows.
Page 7, Ganders, Continue Decreases: Rows 1 and 2 should be repeated 3 3,3,3,3,5 times.
Page 8: Ganders, Finishing, Paragraph 3, Make Buttonholes: should be “… until last 1 3,1,3,1,3 st(s).”