the blue blog archives: baby sweater on board

The next baby sweater up to the plate: the child's geek spiral pullover from Loop-d-Loop in Crystal Palace cotton chenille. Finally another boy in my circle of friends to knit for - I was feeling out of my element with all those girl sweaters!

posted by alison at 9:04 am | in baby geek

Comments

That geek spiral pullover looks way interesting!

Posted by: Emy at March 31, 2006 9:34 AM

Oh, fun construction - and that's going to be one soft sweater. Yum.

Posted by: Chris at March 31, 2006 9:42 AM

Wow, that's a cool pattern. I am really interested to see the finished product.

Posted by: krista at March 31, 2006 9:44 AM

I'm so glad you're knitting this great sweater! I've been looking at the pattern for ages...it'll be good to have you leading the way!

Posted by: Erin at March 31, 2006 10:13 AM

All I have to say is that you are a very generous (and fast!) knitter!

This is such a cool sweater!

Posted by: Amy Lu at March 31, 2006 10:20 AM

I love that sweater, but I HATE using cotton chenille.

Posted by: erin at March 31, 2006 10:31 AM

I love this sweater! Does cotton chenille make 'worms'?

Posted by: Bonney at March 31, 2006 10:32 AM

Can't wait to watch your progress on this one, I've eyed it forever, afraid of the chenille :)

Posted by: aija at March 31, 2006 10:33 AM

I can't wait to read what you think of working with the CP cotton chenille AND with this funkadelic pattern! What a fun combo. :)

Posted by: Karma at March 31, 2006 10:37 AM

Love the colors!

Posted by: Nancy at March 31, 2006 10:53 AM

That looks way cool. Reminds me of the spirals in Alice Starmore's Celtic Collection.

Posted by: LaurieM at March 31, 2006 10:58 AM

ooh, that's going to be really cool. can you tell us how cotton chenille knits (hopefully not like that horrid ribbon), i've been thinking about getting some but i'm afraid i won't like knitting with it.

Posted by: emily at March 31, 2006 11:32 AM

I've used the cotton chenille before. I made a Minnowknits baby sweater with it and I don't remember hating the yarn or anything. I knit it down on US6's, and got a little callus on my forefinger from pushing the yarn off the end of the needle, but it certainly didn't worm on me. I'd heard that their chenille is pretty good as far as chenille goes which is why I decided to give it a try in that baby sweater. You can be sure that I'll let you all know if it annoys me this time!!

Posted by: alison at March 31, 2006 11:45 AM

oh wow! can't wait to see this finished!!!

Posted by: rebecca at March 31, 2006 11:56 AM

What gorgeous colors and such a fantastic looking sweater! I'm looking forward to seeing it knit!

Posted by: Heather at March 31, 2006 12:05 PM

That is a way cool sweater! Have a hard time finding good sweaters for boys that don't require intarsia. I can't believe how fast you knit. Perhaps you knit in your sleep. :)

Posted by: Holly Jo at March 31, 2006 1:59 PM

Wow, neat sweater! Is that intarsia, though?

Posted by: Jess at March 31, 2006 4:51 PM

Holly Jo and Jess, it's actually not intarsia. You start at the center of the front and knit a little triangle in one color. Then you add on a triangle in another color and then another in the third color and finally the fourth. Together they make a square and then you continue adding on triangle shapes to each side. You go around and around adding triangle shapes in a specific pattern and you get the swirls. (The back and sleeves and hood are all knit normally.) I'm hoping it'll be sort of similar to knitting a log cabin blanket.

Posted by: alison at March 31, 2006 5:25 PM

Oooo... I have some of that CP cotton chenille in pink to make some face cloths - it's SUPER SQUISH DELISH!! Yum!!

Posted by: Laura at March 31, 2006 10:46 PM

wow - I have that book an I totally missed that sweater - I think I ignored it because it reminded me of that killer Starmore design that was mucho intarsia, which I avoid like the plague.

that sweater is just fantastic. keep us posted on how you hands tolerate the cotton chenille. if it is ok, i may not be far behind. it is adorable.

Posted by: kim at April 1, 2006 11:55 AM

LOL, tell me about it, I have 4 girls to knit for.

Posted by: Orli at April 1, 2006 3:41 PM

Out of lurkdom to comment - I've just finished this in an aran weight cotton mix to avoid the chenille problems (and also it was $1.49 per ball!). It was a very fast knit, and my 7 year old daughter loves it (I made it in dark, strong pinks and purples instead of the suggested colour-way, and also left off the hood and used a soft roll neck instead) But I'm not entirely happy with the effect the admittedly very nifty construction has on the garment. The pattern warns that the front can appear concave, but that this will disappear with blocking. Well...it only disappeared to an extent with plenty of vigorous steam blocking, and my yarn was considerably more flexible than most chenille. I'd suggest you watch your casting off very carefully and make it nice and loose - Rosie's jumper pooches out in a way that just doesn't make me 100 % satisfied with the technique.

Posted by: genj at April 2, 2006 11:33 AM

Thanks for the info, Genj! I knew there had to be someone out there who's already tried knitting this adorable sweater. After trying the lace leaf sweater and seeing how clever but imperfect the structure is there, I had my suspicions that this design might also have some issues. I'm glad to hear that at least the knitting was quick and that your daughter loves it! I'll do my best to bind off loosely to try to minimize the misshapeness.

Posted by: alison at April 2, 2006 1:00 PM