My nephew, Joshua, is turning 4 years old at the end of January. He has outgrown the other red sweaters with soccer ball buttons that I have knitted for him. This is his new sweater in Knit Pick's Swish Worsted in the Red Pepper colorway, knitted with Ann Norling's Kid's Top-down Raglan pattern. I used my size 8 Denise needles for the body and size 6 for the ribbing and followed the 4.5 sts per inch instructions.
I learned from my Lucy Neatby DVD about picking up 4 sts for every 5 on the ribbing parts of the button bands and then 3 sts for every 4 on the stockinette part, giving me 81 sts on each side. Margaret Fisher's book, Seven Things that can Make or Break a Sweater, encouraged me to experiment with the buttonhole size by going one up and then one down in addition to the original number of stitches that I estimated. So I knitted up three practice buttonholes: 3 sts, 4 sts, and 5 sts. It turns out that the 3 stitch buttonhole worked the best. I want to make this same sweater for Justin, but with basketball buttons which work well with the 4 stitch buttonhole. Joshua's sweater was knit back and forth. For Justin's, I will experiment with some steeking after I knit some more of Lawrence's laptop bag.
that's such a cute cardigan!
Posted by: opal | January 23, 2009 at 12:44 AM
Great job! I am sure your nephew will get a lot of wear out of it.
Posted by: textillian | January 24, 2009 at 08:32 AM
The sweater is beautiful, he will love it, and I am sure he will wear it in 90 degree weather, like he always does.
Posted by: carolyn | January 25, 2009 at 07:58 AM