Well what a challenge I thought this baby jacket pattern presented when it arrived in the mail from my Mum in Adelaide, South Australia!
Mum’s sister, who lives in England had made the jacket several times for work friends as everyone kept admiring it. Then when she heard my parents had a new great grand child due late 2006 she decided that it was time to finally part with the pattern.
My Mum was tired of knitting sweaters for Dad so she bought some baby yarn and started knitting the jacket. However the wrap three times around each stitch 15 times and the purl together 15 stitches gave her some problems so I ended up with the pattern, in California, instead.
I started the jacket April 1st and the knitting was completed April 8th… I bought Rowan Cashsoft Baby 4ply in cream which is wonderful to knit with and then used size US2 for the body and US1 for the yoke.
The pattern was completely addictive and once I did the first 10 rows for the back, the rest was easy. I had never done a wrap around three times before in 15 stitches, nor the purl together 15 stitches, but it was a lot of fun. Seeing the little “shells” pop up was really amazing.
The jacket needs to be sewn together now and I need to get some tiny cream buttons and ribbon for the joke. I might have just enough yarn left to make either the bootees and mittens or the hat.
Of course the great grand child was born safely 8 weeks premature November 2nd 2006 and is now far too big for this size 18-19 inch jacket. However I am sure that his parents or my other nephew due to get married in 2008 will have some more babies so the layette will be used some day soon.
Happy knitting
Sally Ann Gray