Starting Over with Stripes

Since I loved the Blue Striped Rag self-striping sock yarn so much, I figured I’d use it for a little sweater for a Baby-to-Be coming in a couple months.

Lesson learned: self-striping sock yarn really is intended for socks (or maybe sleeves on a baby sweater )

At first, all seemed to be going well as I cast on the top-down Garter Yoke Baby Cardi — although I decided pretty quickly that I’d skip the garter yoke part. I just didn’t like the way the color transitions looked in garter stitch.

So I switched to stockinette stitch and began the increases — adding a stitch on the outer side of each of the 8 markers.

As I’d expected, as the sweater got bigger, with more stitches in each row, the stripes got thinner. That seemed OK at first, but then the stripes started to look really wonky — at one point, not even extending all the way across the width of the sweater.

See what I mean?

That just wouldn’t do — at least, as far as I’m concerned.

So I ripped it out and went in search of a new pattern, one that’s knit in pieces (front sides, back, separate sleeves) and then stitched together. I think I’ve found one in Patches Baby Sweater. But the library won’t have the book for me until tomorrow, so I can’t be sure.

In the meantime, I’ve been knitting a baby blanket for a different Baby-to-Be who’s due to arrive in a couple of months: the Log Cabin Throw from Knit Picks.

Lesson learned from this project: bulky yarn knits up waaaay faster than sock yarn.

But you knew that, right?