This is a modified version of leethal’s skoodlet, to use when I’m carrying my baby in our Sleepywrap sling. It has a hood for him, and instead of the scarflet sections, it has a long back panel that buttons onto my coat on either side. This way, I’m able to button my coat around him, and we both stay warm! I also added a pocket so I’d be able to keep my hands cozy.

I’m really happy with how it turned out. The only thing I don’t like is that the hood ended up a little too big. I re-knit it a couple of times, worrying that it would be too small (I wanted it big enough to fit over a hat), and I think I went a little overboard. But better too big than too small.

I followed the skoodlet pattern to make the hood, with a few changes to the pattern:

• I used value a = 7.4x (24 st) instead of 8x (my gauge was 3.25 st/in, so this translated into 24 st)
• I stopped knitting the section that goes over the top of the head when it was 12 inches long
• I stopped knitting the joined hood section when it was 8.5 inches flattened
• For value “c,” I used 2.5x
• I stopped following the pattern when it got to the scarflet sections

After the hood portion was done, I worked in stockinette stitch (with 7-stitch-wide garter stitch edging) until the panel was 13” long, adding three 3-stitch buttonholes to match up with my coat buttons. Because Arlo is wider at the bottom than at the top, I increased the width of the panel slightly as I worked--it is approx. 15” wide at the top buttonhole and approx. 17” wide at the bottom buttonhole. To do this, I added 2 st (one on each side, right next to the garter edging) every sixth row, more or less.

For the kangaroo pocket, I cast on 24 st, knit in garter stitch for 1”, knit in stockinette stitch for 9”, and then knit another 1” of garter stitch. When it was done, I sewed it onto the front of the panel. It’s a little crooked, but it gets the job done :)