This weekend I broke the rules and cast on the cutest little sweater. Friday night was a super busy knit night and one of our charming knitters had the pattern for the Baby Sophisticate Sweater and she was casting on. I couldn’t resist, I went home and cast on too. I don’t know if it was the shawl collar that got me, or perhaps the promise of using toggle buttons but I was a bad little knitter who went to her box of needles and pulled some out. I used some Dream in Colour Classy I had on hand in the colour Happy Forsest.

Now, the problem came about 3 inches in when I realized it was coming out rather tiny. I know babies are small but the sweater was coming out REALLY small. So I took a gander at the pattern, recommended needle size, yarn gauge, pattern gauge. It just didn’t quite add up. The yarn is an 18, the needles are a 5mm, that makes perfect sense. Normally i would get 18 stitches per 4 inches no problem. I measured out my gauge and I sure did have 18 stitches, the problem is that the pattern gauge is 15 stitches per 4 inches. The pattern designer must be a VERY loose knitter to get that gauge.

I had a couple of options, I could go up a couple of needle sizes or I can use a bulkier yarn or both. I decided that I really loved the colour of this yarn and a slightly looser fabric would be okay so I went to some 6.5 mm needles and started over. I had everything but the last sleeve done by Monday morning, what a great quick knit. Now I just need some adorable buttons…..

To make a Baby Sophisticate of your very own:

1 Skein of Dream in Colour Classy

6.5mm needles (I used 24″ circulars)

2 stitch holders

the pattern, which can be found here.

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