“Daniel Tiger sweater! Yay! Thank you Aunt Jenny,” said Benny. My 5th time knitting this pattern. Third time for Benny. In 2020, I knit a red hoodie for Benny. His mom reported that he outgrew it, but still wanted to wear it and she had a hard time getting him to stop wearing it. When I stopped by to see them a month ago, he ran to his room for his red sweater, which was out of reach. His mom told him it doesn’t fit anymore. I told him I’d knit him a new one. He replied, “Can I have it now?” So that night I started on this hoodie. I knit it as fast as I could and in fact sewed in the zipper in record time. Past projects languished while I made excuses for not sewing in the zipper. Not this time! My little buddy wants his red sweater and he’s gonna get it! 
The Yarn
A heavier gauge, so I did the math and basically followed stitch counts for the third size (2-4 years) plus 2 additional sts to make a 6-8 yrs garment. Benny is 4.5 years and wearing a size 6. I followed the lengths for 6-8 yrs, plus a little extra length for shrinkage. This yarn will shrink in length, but not width when dried in the dryer. I have used this yarn many times. I recommend to machine wash and dry on low until damp and lay flat to finish drying. If you don’t put it in the dryer, the cotton content in the yarn will not dry nicely and be stringy and less soft. Machine drying helps the cotton to bloom and fluff up. There will be some fluff in the dryer. The red color way does bleed a little bit. The other colors I’ve used have not bled, even used alongside white. Only the red and it’s not that bad.
Note: this yarn used to be called Spud & Chloe Sweater and now they’ve changed the name to Blue Sky Fibers Sweater. I guess they’re getting rid of the Spud & Chloe brand. This was really confusing for me when I was trying to order because it wasn’t coming up when I searched for Spud & Chloe.
04-10-2022
Cast on 121 sts with US6 wooden cubics, using alternating cable cast on.
04-11-2022
12 rows broken rib, about 1.75”. Then switch to US7 needles.
Add 1 extra st before place marker to account for extra stitches.
Separated pockets
I do it differently from the instructions. I go down a needle size just for kfb for the pockets because, at least for me, those sts will look larger than a normal st, if I continue with the same needle, even with being a tight knitter. So I used a US6. I knit the rest of that row with the US7. Then I go back and separate the pocket sts from the body sts. I don’t purl across while doing this. It is easier to just concentrate on separating the sts.
When you knit front and back, one st looks normal and one looks like a purl bump. I put the purl bumps to the back and the knit v’s to the front, which is opposite of the instructions. I think this looks nicer and more seamless. At this point, the front sts may look a bit bigger than the rest of the piece, but when you knit across the body later, it will pull the first row of pocket sts tighter and will look better.
Knit 10 rows of pocket sts before decreases.
04-14-2022
Finished pockets and back to knitting on the body. The first row of pocket stitches looks nice and tight after knitting the first row of the body after pocket increases.
04-19-2022
Zipper
Ordered zippers today to speed up the process. There aren’t many options for sizes, so I decide not to wait to finish knitting and blocking to order, which would greatly increase my turn around time to finish.
I ordered:
YKK® #5 Vislon Molded Plastic Separating Zippers 18” and 24” from zipperstop.com in #519 Hot Red.
04-20-2022
Knit body to 12.5”. Next is sleeves.
04-21-2022
Sleeves
To match gauge, I go up a needle size when knitting in the round vs. straight knitting.
Alternating cable cast on 32 sts on US7 wooden cubics.
Will knit both cuffs first then join them on the same cable and knit two sleeves at a time on US8 metal cubics.
04-29-2022
Two sleeves knit to 13” long. One extra inch longer for my little monkey.
05-05-2022
Started on hood.
05-07-2022
Hood
Hood finished. 17 sts on hold.
Interesting discrepancy between the adult sized pattern and the baby/child size pattern. It took me until this 5th hoodie to notice. 
Probably because I just knit one for myself (yet to be finished) and had it fresh in my mind.
Anyway, in the adult version, when you are shaping the top of the hood, she has you turn and then slip one, which makes sense because you just knit that stitch and slipping places your working yarn on the right needle and also makes a nicer chained detail. On the baby version, she doesn’t have you slip it. At first, I double checked the pattern (baby version) after knitting about halfway thru, I thought, no, you slip that stitch. Scrolled down the the hood section of the adult version and yup, she has you turn and slip one. I think it looks much better to do that. But I noted that I knit 2 hoodies following this way and it will be ok, even though it’s not as neat looking. Next time I’ll try to remember to turn and slip when I get to that part of the pattern.
05-11-2022
Knitting done. Ends weaved in. Pockets sewed down. Just needs a wash and a zipper.
Ended up using some leftover yarn from the last red hoodie. Good thing I had that yarn. I can’t see a difference between the old yarn and the new.
05-13-2022
Sewed in the zipper today! This is my fastest turn around time ever!
I washed and dried 30 minutes until damp and laid it out to dry. The sweater was not completely dry today, so I threw it back into the dryer on extra low for another 20 minutes. It shrank down a bit more, which is to be expected and one of the reasons, I knit the length a little longer. I used an 18” zipper, and it fit perfectly.
A while back I bought some wash away double stick quilters tape after seeing a video by Suzanne Bryan on sewing a zipper into a knitted sweater. I was skeptical if the tape would wash away and didn’t want to chance messing up my project. So I used the tape in place of basting in the zipper. I put the tape in a position, such that I could remove it after sewing. I did not sew thru the tape. It’s not perfect at sticking to knitted fabric, but it’s good enough to temporarily hold it while sewing, and easy to remove after as long as you don’t sew thru it. I then used my sewing machine to sew the zipper into the sweater. Many times I have struggled to sew in the zipper and this is the fastest I’ve ever accomplished this task, and I am thankful for that.
Final measurements:
Chest - 28”
Underarm to hem - 12”
Bicep - 9”
Sleeve - 12.75”
Shoulder to underarm - 6”
Better pics tomorrow in daylight.
05-15-2022
Benny got his sweater and his mom sent me a video. He said, “Daniel Tiger sweater! Yay! Thank you Aunt Jenny!” All smiles. 
Then something about like Fred Rogers. I wish we could upload videos on here.
His mom said, “He wants to wear it to the park today. He thought maybe Bella could wear the older small one 
“
Bella is my cat! Never mind his little sister, Gracie, could wear it.
06-28-2023
Made a doll sized R&R hoodie for an 18 inch doll. Check it out here.
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