A Tale of Two Sweaters...or why I hate intarsia

When Itchy was 3 or so, he saw me looking through Zoe Mellor's Adorable Knit for Tots , spied the Pirate sweater and begged me to make it, "but make it red, Mommy." As anyone knows who has had to bribe, er, I mean coerce children into wearing any sweater in general, handknits in particular, I jumped at the chance. Machine washable cotton classic, red of course, being the only color he'll wear, I set off on what looked like a fairly straight-forward quick knit. Ah, silly me. I forgot about the intarsia. I'd never done it before, but I figured, how hard could it be? After all, I'm a gal that likes challenges. The more cables the better. One big motif in the middle? Bring it, baby. Yes, there were tears. Much frogging. The inside is an unholy mess. But I finally finished it and got the greatest reward known to knitters. Itchy wore that sweater to school every day for a year. I had to sneak it out of his room to wash it. It's been two years now, he stills wears it (though thankfully not every day) and every time he complains it's getting too small and I need to make him a new one, I just wash it, lay it flat to dry and tug the sleeves and the body and extra inch. This thing's going to make it to middle school, if I have anything to say about it.

Specs: Itchy's Pirate Sweater
Pattern: Zoe Mellor's Adorable Knits for Tots
Yarn: Tahki Cotton Classic
Needles: US6s, I think
Completed: Winter 2004


Next up: A Tale of Two Sweaters, part 2