if ever there is evidence that i need to photograph my WIPs, it is this FO

because this is a super cute baby sweater, no?

Well let me tell you, you NEVER would have guessed that the weirdly floppy-wavy thing I knit could have been seamed into submission to make this sweater. That thing was NUTS.

I started working on this back in November, but just finished it recently. It may be eligible for some kind of "slowest baby sweater ever knit in the history of time" award. I should look into that. Don't get me wrong - I love the finished product, and I loved knitting it. The pattern is by Tora Frøseth (a Norwegian designer who has a ton of cute, unique designs) and I think it's SUPER clever. It's a great opportunity to play with bright, contrasty colors (oraqua, anyone?) and the accordion-style row pattern means this sucker will stretch for miles, so no matter what it will fit a kid for a good long while. And that asymmetrical closure just kills me!

It just took me forever to finish because, genius that I am, I didn't realize when I started this project that because of that accordion row pattern it would be a LOT more knitting than your average baby sweater. So that took a while. Then, while on a yarn crawl with some Div School knitting buddies (celebrating Allison's birthday!) I went in Soutache for the first time and found a GREAT button. (Chicagoans: Soutache is FUN. If you haven't been there before, go now! I'm dying to take a ribbon embroidery class there.) It would have been even better had I not immediately lost it somewhere in our disaster area apartment. I suspect it became a cat toy during the night and will be found deep under some large piece of furniture when we move out of this place. The button losing incident was demoralizing and it took me a while to admit that I should probably just buck up and buy a replacement. I got this orange one while I was at Loopy one day. I was all, "whatever I'm just going to buy WHATEVER, it doesn't have to be PERFECT, I'm sure it can just be FINE," and what I ended up with was, well, better than the original button. The original was a darker shade of aqua/teal that matched the aqua yarn. I'm glad that I ended up with orange in the end, and thank GOD the color coordinates so nicely, since I didn't have the sweater there for reference when I bought the replacement.

The sweater has since been gifted and I'm of course on to millions of new projects. The deets are right here on ravelry. I used Knit Picks Swish DK for this, and I think Swish might be my favorite yarn for baby items. It's washable, super durable, and available in a crapton of bright colors. Next up I need to finish that pair of Macro Mitts for ME that I've been working on, a test knit for a friend, some fiddleheads for a swap with Phoe, and millions more baby items for the forthcoming ARMY OF BABIES.