Baby Sweater Blocking!

Here's a gingerbread castle sweater, all knit and blocking! This sweater is for that baby that should be coming from Kazakhstan in about two months. I'd always loved this castle (from Barbara Walker's A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns) when I was growing up and I wanted it on a sweater. Since I never managed one for myself, I decided that someone was going to get one!

Here's a close-up of the front. The ribbing pattern is from Nicky Epstein's Knitting on the Edge. The lower border is 3x3 check, and it took a bit of experimentation to find something with the right size and texture and to work a big enough section. The castle is from the Barbara Walker book. I added the beads (strung on, so they shouldn't come off, even with little fingers), omitted a yo in the tower (it looked like a mistake), and left off the flat at the top of the pole. I'm going to sew in some ribbon streamers instead.

The back and sleeves have the same ribbing and 3x3 check. The sleeves also have a column of faggotting, the same stitch as the windows on the castle. I'll use the holes to weave ribbons (the same colors as the streamers) up the sleeves.

It feels like the bulk of the work on this sweater is done, but I think doing the ribbon part will be a little tedious. Experiments have shown that the ribbon is a smidge too wide to fit though the lace holes effortlessly, and I don't have a firm plan for how (or perhaps, where) to attach the ribbons on the sleeves so that they'll be secure against little fingers. That will be Phase 2, probably sometime next week.

Hat Comments
Thanks for the many compliments on my hat! My mom has plenty of natural alpaca leftover from her mittens, so I can make another one. The ear flap idea is a good one, but I just don't think I'm an ear flap kinda girl. Maybe I'm too old. Maybe I'm too stodgy.

Maybe I could have earflaps if I was going to learn to snowboard... :) But then I'd need a really silly hat and I'd have an excuse to make one of Anna Zilboorg's beutiful but funky hats that I would never wear otherwise!