Mmm, Baby, Baby... Ba-Baby, Baby!

The babies have been appearing at a fast and furious rate around here. Possibly something to do with those cold winter months where future parents are stuck at home in the cold? Anyway, the knitting needles have been trying to keep up.

Baby Set 2.0

Pattern: Quickie Baby Sweater and Bonnet
Yarn: JoAnn's Bellezza Collection Dolcetto 1.5 skeins (wool/nylon/cotton blend) and a bit from a skein of pink & purple mystery yarn
Needles: 10.5 Addis, H crochet hook
Dates: October 2006
Recipient: Baby A in Kansas City
Notes: This pattern is a great little project for a baby set. It's fast, easy and you can easily get cute results, especially with the addition of cutesy little buttons and ribbon. I opted for the wee little twee buttons and shiny translucent ribbon to up the princess factor on the sweater. If you can't be twee when you're a month old, really, when can you get away with pink rose buttons?

This yarn is lighter than baby set 1.0 so the finished project is smaller, but I think/hope it will work for a newborn little princess. I completed the pattern as written for the version with buttons, only changing the ribbing on the sleeves to garter stitch as before. I only used the pink yarn on the garter stitch since color tips at the cuffs and bottom seem to be au courant and our little one must be in the latest trend.

Now to the yarn... This was a Black Friday purchase from last year, I believe, with nothing in mind for it besides curiosity. It's a bit like knitting with cotton candy, provided cotton candy wasn't sticky. It's very, very soft, single-ply, although plied might even be too strong to describe this stuff. It looks like you could just pull it apart and although that never happened, I don't think this is going to hold up for the long haul. It pills rather easily and I felt that the sweater looked "worn" before I even wrapped it up. I'm a bit concerned that even with careful handwashing, it's going to hit the water and come out looking like the matted, gross edges of the cotton candy swirl after everyone and their brother has come along begging for a mouthful of your confection.

It didn't knit up very evenly, which was fine for this project, but if you like the look of even, crisp stitches, avoid this stuff. (Might be interesting to see this on smaller needles too, as the large gauge possibly affected the less-than-stellar outcome.) Although it comes in baby colors, I think the hand-wash in cold factor should really be considered before this becomes anyone's standard baby sweater yarn. This is another case where the Big Box Store brand isn't a savings at all. I got it at serious discount in the pre-dawn hours of Black Friday shopping, but at $6 for 131 yards, it's not really a very good deal. All in all, I think the finished product was acceptable, and I'll probably even use the rest of my stash of this for something for the nephew arriving in Feb., but I wouldn't seek this yarn out for something in the future.

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On a technical note, Blogger and I have not been playing nicely together this week. This post was eaten twice and I've lost countless comments on others' blogs. Grrr... So if you've commented and I've not replied, I'm not trying to be a terribly rude dolt. Seems that I've taken up a rather nasty habit of swearing like a pirate every time I see a blogger malfunction and somehow I don't feel it's appropriate to say "cute scarf, $%#^@^@ computers!" So rudeness prevails but hopefully not for long. I'm having visions of my grandmother pointing her crooked finger at me and informing me in no uncertain terms to get to commenting (with polite words).

Despite these little "issues," I think I may sign up for this, National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). A post every day in November? Doubt I can post about knitting every day, but I've been wanting to post more frequently anyway. Hmm... anyone else game?