One month ago, on March 24th, I started knitting my first sweater. I had seen the In Threes cardigan on several blogs and loved it every time. I really wanted to make one for my own little babe. When I looked at the pattern on Ravelry and it was listed as "easy", I thought I would take the leap and give it a shot. I like knitting with wool, so even though it is now Spring, that is what I chose for the sweater. I thought that she could wear it now for a month or so and then hopefully again in Fall. I started knitting it when I was staying at my parent's house for a week. Since I didn't have to do any of my normal housework, I had a lot of time for knitting and had it two-thirds of the way completed by the time I returned home. The hard part was done (the neck pattern and the sleeves) and I just had to knit and purl to the bottom.
Almost done...
Binding off the last stitch!
Yeah - a real sweater made by me! I never thought I would have the skills to do this.
I wanted something special for the buttons, so I chose these handmade ceramic buttons by Sheppard Handmade on Etsy. I love their chunky texture and shape and I had a hard time keeping them away from my little babe!
I made the 18 month size and it is a bit big for her now, but will fit perfectly in the Fall. She doesn't seem to mind though. I hung it in her room yesterday and she wanted to take off the tunic she was wearing and put this sweater on. I thought we'd just try it on and save actually wearing it for the first time on Easter, but she didn't want to take it off. Considering it was in the 40's outside, but with sun, it was perfect on our walk with some other warm accessories.
I am thrilled with how it turned out! The trickiest part for me was KFB, knitting into the front then knitting into the back of the same stitch. It was really awkard and took me double time to complete those rows. The armpit stitches are also a bit looser than I would like, but it was my first time binding off and then casting back on in the middle of a project, so I'm just glad I actually did it without any mistakes. After completing this sweater, I now feel like a real knitter. I have the yarn for my next project ready to go!
Any knitters out there - do you have a favorite project that you made for someone else? Or I know this is a popular pattern - if you have made the In Threes sweater and wrote a blog post about it, I'd love for you to share it below. I think it is fun seeing the same pattern worked in different yarns.