Working on a baby cardigan

Aside from hats, this is the first baby garment that I’ve knitted.
The pattern is Helena, from Knitty.

I had originally planned to knit Elizabeth Zimmerman’s “February” baby cardigan, but I didn’t have access to the pattern when I wanted to start knitting (i.e. IMMEDIATELY!), so I went with this one instead. The construction’s basically the same, but the lace pattern and hem are different.

I’ve only changed one thing about this pattern, and that was swapping the front ties for three little buttons. I do wish I’d cast off on a larger needle, but that’s just a peculiarity of my knitting style not a complaint about the pattern. The same applies to the fact that it took me a whole hour to pick up and knit the stitches for the band. Ouch.

I have to confess that my motives for choosing the February pattern were entirely selfish. I’ve never knitted a top-down raglan cardigan before, and I wanted to try out the technique on something small. I’d really like to knit myself a February Lady cardigan, but I didn’t want to launch into yet another big knitting project only to abandon it because I didn’t like the way it was turning out.

All I need to do now is knit the sleeves, and finish them off with a neat little picot hem. Then it can be sent off to Catherine, who hopefully won’t have grown out of it before she gets to put it on!