Hello and welcome to a little post where I share some of the details about my most recently finished knitting project, the Anker’s Sweater (Website|Ravelry)! This project is a top down textured yolk sweater with some raglan increases, the rest of the sweater is stockinette. This particular pattern is made for sizes 3 months to 8 years. So, it works up super quickly! I ended up making the size 9-12 months so it can be used next fall/winter by the baby and their parents. I figured, they would get a ton of stuff for when the baby is very tiny, so having something for down the road would be helpful.
Why This Pattern
Well, I made this project for a few reasons, the first being I made an adult T-shirt version of this sweater in the past so I was very familiar with the construction already. This is for sure a beginner friendly pattern, but already knowing kind of how it was going to work up was for sure a selling point on the pattern. I also had yarn that I could use for the project already in my stash, so I wouldn’t have to wait to receive an order or take a tip to a yarn store. Normally, I would have no qualms about doing either of these, but I found out about the shower about a month before it was set to happen. Time was for sure not on my side to complete this project.
The Yarn
For this project it calls for two strands of fingering held double, which tends to be a DK once combined. Taking that into consideration, I took a peak at my yarn stash, I had a large enough pile of worsted weight yarn and did a swatch. It worked out so I decided to use Encore Worsted Solids & Heathers from Plymouth Yarn. I also liked that it was made of a material that could be washed with a little less care. Always good for baby things. I ended up using a green/blue color called 678 Light Green Forest.
While Knitting
This thing worked up so quickly, it was kind of hard to believe. I have never made a baby sweater, so that might be why I thought it was going to take longer. I knew, obviously, that it would work up faster than one of my sweaters, but honestly, it was kind of staggering how fast it went. On the first day I was already 60% though the yoke, the second day I was already entirely through the yoke and halfway through the remaining body. Only two days and I was working on other projects. The arms also only took about a day each, this really is a fast knit, I didn’t even knit the smallest size. The one thing I noticed while working is I did not enjoy working on such small circumference with a thicker yarn. It was more so noticeable the first 10 rows of each sleeve. It felt like there was just too much around my hands, but once length was added it was perfectly fine.
Thoughts Overall
I really think this is a great simple pattern with a little something going on for visual interest. It is a combination of simple stiches, and uses them to make something that looks harder than it is. Obviously, it still takes some work, and those increases can be tricky if you are unfamiliar with them, but a quick tutorial on youtube will fix that quickly. It was also well written pattern, it was all straight forward. Also, I just want to make it clear, I did not make any modifications to this pattern other than working with worsted weight yarn. So, this really shows how much I enjoyed this pattern, I tend to make modifications to wearables these days. I think I would for sure make this pattern again since the process was fun and enjoyable and the outcome was super cute and I cannot wait to gift it.
Bookish Luna 