Detailed blog posts regarding issues I had with knitting this sweater and modifications I used to get around these are on the blog in case they are of any help.

I had numerous issues with this pattern as written.

As mentioned in many of the other completed projects on Ravelry is that this sweater does not fit easily over a baby’s head.

I also had issues with fitting the intarsia chart of the whale onto the sweater of the smallest size, which doesn’t work with the pattern’s given gauge.

The pattern gives a row gauge of 24 rows per 4″/10cm (so six rows per inch).

5 rows of garter stitch (which is about ½”)
+ 1″ of stockinette for the newborn size = 1½”.
Whale motif is 39 rows high, which at 6 rows per inch works out to 6½” +added to the initial 1½” = 8”

However, the pattern gives instruction to start the bind-off for armhole shaping for the newborn size after 6″ from the cast-on edge: 2 inches before, (using the pattern’s gauge), the chart would be finished.

The motif of the whale runs right up to the top-left corner of the chart, and the newborn sweater size uses the entire width of the chart up to the seaming line, so by following the pattern you lose half of the whale’s tail.

Other knitters have also said that at larger sizes the chart is not centred.

Additionally, the sleeves did not seem to be in proportion to the rest of the sweater, but I’d given up on this before I even bothered to start knitting those.

Modifications include:

• Vertical opening added to neckline so it would fit over baby’s head

• Length and armhole shaping and placement altered so that it did not interfere with the charted design

• Sleeves not bothered with due to previous issues

• Apply On-The-Fly iCord edging used to finish neck and sleeve holes.