The Third Day of Christmas Vacation

I finally cast on for the great-niece's Christmas sweater.  Disclaimer here -- I don't have to have it done for a week!  It took me quite a while and some digging on the internet, ravelry and in the yarn room to decide what I wanted to do.  The great-nephew's was a Knitting Pure And Simple pattern with raglan sleeves.  I wasn't completely sold on that for the little girl, thinking that a round yoke might be a little more girlie.  Couple that with the fact that I have about five colors I wanted to use together and not enough of any one to do the KPS without making a trip to the yarn shop, which I did not want to do today.

I have in my mind what I want the yoke sweater to look like, a take off on Playful Stripes by Alana Dakos only not as a cardigan, but as a pullover.  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/playful-stripes-cardigan
I'm pretty certain that come Tuesday, I will have to make a trip over to Morton to add some hot pink yarn to this, cause I fairly confident that one is not going to do it.  Originally, I was thinking some chunks of color when I bought the rest of the yarns out at Knit 4 Together.

I did spend a lot of time noodlin through how to do this one.  Since it was a yoke sweater and almost all of them are from the bottom up, including Alana's and the EZ ones, I did a little searching to see if there was anything from the top down that I could use to adapt to either one of these sweaters.  The thought and the reason I like top down so much is that should I need to alter this one after the gift has been received, it should be fairly easy to rip back or add to at the hem to make it custom fit.  Something, you don't just get bottom up sweaters.

So in my noodles, a technique came back to me that I saw in just the last couple of days.  I think it might have been the Yarn Harlot or someone she had guest bloggin years ago or it could be someone totally different.  Anywho, the just of it is to cast on with a waste yarn.  Work three rows of stockinette and then begin your sweater.  Work up through the yoke and neck in the conventual or rather the EZ way.  Then, pull out the waste knitting, and work down towards the hem.  Voila, problem solved should I need to add or subtract from this area.



I've got a sample of a 4T for sizing for this one as well, but on hers I am leaning towards making it longer into a tunic that she can wear with leggins ( the sweater not the t-shirt).  It seems that this little three year old has a mind of her own and likes to wear dresses and tights instead of pants.

Now, you might think that I finally settled in my mind and am busy knitting on the yoke tunic?!  As things would happen, this morning, while doing a little Ravelry surfin, I came up with this little cutie!
http://petitepurls.com/Fall11/fall2011_p_littlered.html

Just like Little Red Riding Hood...now at first thought, I tole myself that I don't have enough yarn that is soft and pretty enough for this and that a trip to the only yarn shop that might be open this morning could be in order. But, I am really trying to use stash so I went into the yarn room and sat on the bench looking at the yarns, hoping one would jump out that would meet the criteria for this cutie.

The red Venezia is an option since I have sufficient amount of this for it to be held double.

What really drew me to this pattern is a comment her mother made earlier this Fall, that her brother and she were into capes.  I'm just afraid that if I do knit this one, that it will be used more for play than for the beauty of it, but on the other hand, I am not so sure that the sweater is any better of a plan.  This child has her mother's temperment from when she was a child, what can I say.

I am fairly certain that this will be the last year for knitted items for these two as I'll be knitting for a grandchild next year.