FO Friday: Beatrix Baby Sweater

Another baby sweater is off the needles and ready to be gifted - and this time I stepped outside of my comfort zone to try a new-to-me pattern, the Beatrix baby sweater by Courtney Kelley, which is from the Kelbourne Woolens Baby Collection.

While I absolutely love all of the Kelbourne/Fibre Company yarns, they do not make a machine washable option that I am aware of, so I subbed in with some superwash merino yarn. That's not my only modification, though - the pattern is written for a DK weight on US 3 needles, but since the yarn I subbed in was a worsted weight, I wanted to bump up a few needle sizes to US 6. I ended up knitting a gauge swatch to figure out what my corresponding SPI (stitches per inch) would be so that I could figure out what instructions to follow for the size I wanted to make.

I wanted to knit the 12-18 month size, so at 6 SPI, I ended up following the stitch counts for the smallest size, but the written measurements for the intended size. So, that meant that if the pattern had a specific measurement I needed to knit towards, I had to be careful to use the correct number (i.e. the measurement given for the third size option, vs. the first). To avoid any confusion on my part, I went through the entire pattern to circle the numbers I needed to follow, since there was a fair amount of bouncing between instructions specific to stitch counts vs. instructions specific to measurements.

How adorable is this little hippo button?!

The result is super-cute, and I think the new parents will be happy that I opted for something that doesn't have to be hand-washed...I know I would!

The Details
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Worsted in Electric Blue (MC) and Gulfstream (CC)
Needles: Knitter's Pride Royale interchangeables, US 6
Pattern: Beatrix by Courtney Kelley

Thanks for stopping by, have a crafty weekend!

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