My friend Lisa and I are a bit obsessed with the television show Sons of Anarchy. At first glance, a show about a motorcycle gang may not appeal to everyone, but this show brings Shakespearean motifs and fantastic acting performances and it’s really hard to stop watching once you get going. A few months ago I’d jokingly said that her little boy, who just turned one, needed a knitted motorcycle vest. And then I decided that no, really, he did.
I came up with the numbers by flipping through 60 Quick Baby Knits and picking out a set-in sleeve cardigan as the base. Then I just sort of went from there. No sleeves, obviously, that’s why I needed a set-in sleeve pattern. I worked an I-cord edge at both fronts to give it a smooth look (which also made the bottom fronts pull up, interestingly enough). Applied the same I-cord technique at the armhole edges, and carried it around the back collar. The bottom hem was rolling like crazy, so I picked up the stitches from the cast on edge and worked a short hem facing along the bottom. Yarns used: Patons Classic Wool Merino, Cascade 220, and Lion Brand Wool-Ease. Stashbusting! I haven’t yet weighed the amount of LB Wool-Ease I used, but I know there’s at least 151 yds between the Patons and Cascade.
For the lettering, I used some off-white felt that I had in my stash, and cut out the letters freehand. Then I just took basic black thread and stitched them on.
I also knit him a little something else, but that’s a secret and will be revealed later.
In sad news, I have to announce the death of the sweater dress. I tried it on last night and I had to pull in at least 8″ of fabric to get it to fit comfortably (with about an inch or two of ease). I’m not sure if I’m going to try again with the dress, or move on to something else with that yarn (I do have the pattern for Amy Christoffer’s Larch Cardigan and it’s starting to call to me). I’ll really need to check the gauge on the washed Chickadee, as it does feel more like a DK than a sport to me and I don’t want to knit it into a too-stiff fabric. We’ll see what happens!
Wait, you used three different yarns? And they are all the same black? Well done!
Yep! There is a slight difference between the Patons Classic Wool Merino and the Cascade 220 in shade, but I’m pretty sure only I can see where it changes because I know where to look. And the LB feels a little different, but again, it’s very minor. I was amazed I had enough matching black yarn to do this out of stash remnants!
Have you any idea how many compliments he gets with this? Also, John has taken to putting it on the back of his trike everytime we take him out on it. Which is more than several times a week.