A colleague just found out his wife is pregnant with their second child. I shall have to organize a Daddy shower, and of course there must be hand knits.

Jan 13, 2009: Casting on. Okay no wonder I can’t get gauge with the Mission Falls 1824 yarn. The woman at the yarn shop showed me this yarn when I asked for DK-weight cotton or cotton blend, assuring me this was DK. Ravelry lists it as Aran weight. I’m not convinced it’s Aran, either. It’s knitting up okay on size 3 needles, not too stiff, but even when I cast on the 6 month size, it’s coming out larger than the 18 month size. Grrr… if I’d bought this locally I’d take it back, but I’d have to drive 3 hours over the mountains to get to the store where I bought it last summer. Just have to set this aside for another project or a yarn swap and try again. The Rowan Wool Cotton that the pattern calls for costs more than I want to spend, but I see Elann has a nice DK cotton yarn for about half what I paid for this stuff. While I made a vow this year to buy from my LYS, local artisans, or Etsy artisans except when I really, really have to have a particular yarn, I think this counts as really, really having to have a particular yarn. Order is in.

17 Jan 2009: Re-cast-on with Elann Sonata and I still didn’t get gauge even on size 4 needles when the pattern calls for size 5. I must be knitting loose, or knitting in the round is affecting me. I think I’ll have to end up doing this the old-fashioned way -- knit it flat and seam it, and I’ll probably have to go down to a size 3 needle.

17 Feb 2009: Re-cast on a couple of weeks ago onto size 3 circular needles. Getting gauge -- except that when I measured after six inches or so, I’m getting the 6 month instead of the 12 month size. Piffle. I think it will stretch a little when washed, blocked, and pressed. I’m sticking with it, since I’m nearly done with the body now. I divided for the sleeves and have done the duckies on the front.

14 March 2009: Finished! The final sweater ended up being 3 month size, even after casting on for 6 month size and thinking it would turn out large! My stranded knitting tends to draw up a bit. I ran it through the washer and dryer, too, to even up the stitches (all-cotton yarn isn’t very forgiving) and to get the initial shrink out of it. The button placket at the shoulder worked pretty well, though it makes the roll neck look a little funky in that spot. To do the placket, started a few rows below the shoulder line, did a row of purl stitches, then six rows of knit, then a row of purl, and then bound the stitches off. I put four 2-stitch buttonholes on the front placket. Jo-Ann Fabrics carries cute buttons for kids clothes and for scrapbooking and crafts, so I searched their racks for any pond-themed buttons. I found frogs and yellow ducks, but all were too large for my buttonholes and had complex shapes that would make buttoning a wiggly baby difficult. Then I came across these plastic turtle buttons. Though there aren’t any turtles in the knit design, the turtles fit the pond theme, and they look pretty cute marching across the shoulder.