Teal Layette

I was at my local yarn shop recently and was looking through the selection of baby pattern books. There are quite a lot of them to look at I must say. My favorites are the French ones, Pingouin, Anny Blatt and Bouton d'Or. Sometimes I find a nice English or German one.

This time I found a Pingouin that I didn't already have and squealed with delight. The ladies in the shop are used to this behavior and shared my pleasure with knowing smiles.

After finishing with the patterns I moved on to the sale bins. 40% off is not to be ignored. I found quite a bit of Sirdar Rio in nice soft colors. It's 60% cotton and 40% acrylic, making it a good choice for summer or multi-seasonal garments. So I stocked up.

This is the specific pattern that interested me in this Pingouin book. The long sleeve pullover A and the pants B in the photo at left. It's a simple classic outfit suitable for either gender. I like the stitch pattern on the pullover and the color is divine. I found some Rio in just that shade, so wanted to try it out.

There is one problem with the pattern-I don't like the 2x2 ribbing they used with the 2x4 garter rib stitch of the body of the sweater. To me, it doesn't look like it's in keeping with the design. I also don't like the little rolled edges, they just have a tendency to collect baby drool. So I changed it to single rib.

So here is the finished product. I do like the single rib much better with the pattern stitch. Sirdar Rio has nice stitch definition and it doesn't split easily while knitting.

Because the yarn is cotton rich, it also doesn't have a lot of elasticity. This made the waistband a little too loose. I have installed a drawstring for the time being, but may use some elastic thread to pull it up properly around the waist in future.

This is one of the things that may happen when substituting yarns in patterns. Cotton doesn't behave the same way as wool, which doesn't behave exactly the same way as synthetics. To make things more confusing, different yarns of the same fiber will behave differently too. I find baby clothes are a good way to experiment with yarns to discover just what kind of fabric they will make before I decide to make an adult sized garment.

Edit: This newborn-sized outfit used 4 balls of Sirdar Rio.