A colleague’s baby is beginning to outgrow the gifts knit for her almost a year ago, so this seemed like a perfect time to knit a new little something for her. Something that’s a little bigger and right for the rest of spring and into the summer months.

The cardigan is a top down raglan seamless wonder based on the Sparkly Flouncy Cardi by Sue Caldwell. Basically I used the stitch counts from the pattern but lengthened the sleeves and didn’t do the eyelet rows and increases. These top down seamless raglan sweaters are so easy and so fast to knit and are incredibly easy to customize. The cloche is my Day in the Park Cloche. I’m a little in love with knitting these cloche’s right now – the babies look so jaunty wearing them.

The yarn is Martha Stewart Crafts Extra Soft Wool Blend (a Lion Brand yarn). It’s  great yarn for doing kids garments in because the colors are great, the yarn is soft, and it washes really well (I inadvertently threw the hat I knit myself in with my jeans and cycled it through both the washer and dryer so I can say the yarn will hold up to some pretty rough treatment).

The sweater has a 20″ chest circumference which is a 24-month size, so it should be a little big for now. The stripes are four different colors, each stripe is about 1 1/2″ wide. The green garter borders at the cuffs, neck, and hem is 6 rows of garter stitch. Just enough to add a hint of green and use up the less than 50 yards I had left.

I decided to do the cloche in pink and white in the 12-18 month size which should be a good fit for the baby now. This yarn is heavier than the DK the pattern calls for but it worked up to be the same size as the hats knit in DK, the fabric is just a little thicker.

And of course, I had my ever helpful knitting buddy at my feet enjoying the sunshine on the front porch. I don’t know which of us is enjoying the weather more – Happy Spring and Happy Knitting!