Burke’s Northwest Baby Sweater

I’ve been detailing a bit of the creative process of designing a baby sweater for my soon-to-be nephew Burke, from the initial brainstorm to a first draft and now the finished piece. It’s now done, gifted to his mom (my step-sister) at her baby shower, and patiently awaiting his arrival! I cast on with a brown moss stitch border, knit the body in light blue stockinette, and added intarsia cloud and sunshine with sun rays embroidered on top. I used 100% cotton yarn.

I had asked a friend with a 6-month-old if I could take photos of the sweater on her baby, but I finished knitting it at 1 am the night before I flew up to Seattle for Blair’s baby shower, so that didn’t happen! I designed the sweater to be gender neutral but still have some personality. I knit the 6 month size, figuring that a cotton sweater is perfect for Seattle in the spring/summer.

For the neck, for which I struggled to decide what to do, I did a rolled stockinette neckline. After knitting the sweater, I picked up the back and front neck on a needle 2 sizes smaller than that of the main body and worked reverse stockinette stitch for several rows before binding off. The stockinette stitch rolls to the inside and gives a taste of a miniature shawl collar. Thanks to Jean for the idea!

I do intend to write this pattern up and make it available on Ravelry. I was writing it as I knit, but at the very end I was in such a rush to get it finished that I didn’t get the last part of the pattern written down. So, I’ll eventually knit this one more time and finish the pattern because, as they say,  the fourth time’s the charm!