Finally finished!

Baby opening buttoned up

Months of delay coincided with a serendipitous prolonging of fall, as the winter temperatures now ascend upon us, my baby wearing sweater Baby and Me Poncho is complete.
 




opening for hand

By no means is this a perfect piece. stitch errors are quite visible to the naked eye. Were I to make another one I would consider stopping the stitch increases a little sooner, but on the whole I'm pretty pleased with how the shape of this turned out and isn't as wonky as I began to fear it had become. For the last half of this poncho I was working two long circular needles to accomplish this seamless work of persistence. This took me quite a long time to complete, so please do not ask me to make you one... at least not till I no longer have a houseful of little people of my own. I would have to charge about $1k to make this worth my while. The thought had crossed my mind many times that perhaps sewing a poncho with felted wool with an organic cotton lining might have been a heck of a lot faster. Or even a polyester fleece shell with a cotton lining... This poncho's baby opening closes with large wooden (firmly sewn on) buttons, but a sewn poncho might do much better to have KAM snaps. Now that's something I "could" probably whip up in a weekend! .... but I'm on to the next project box... another felted Christmas Stocking! My second one will be the Deer Family.

knitting right along

I wasn't sure if this would be a sweater or more of a poncho... from the top down you can go either way. Now though, the decision has been made and it will be more of a sweater with traditional sleeves. Sleeves are now on holders (stitches are just looped onto a piece of yarn and tied in a circle). The circulars are proceeding with working down the length of the body.

Room for two heads

Baby opening tucked in
closed position

Right because two are better than one.

Baby opening
open

It's my hope that when I don't need an opening for baby the button panel will tuck under discretely and not be too noticeable.

I'll have to sew on buttons, but the button holes are ready on the flip side of the baby collar/ opening ribbing.

Weird, uh?

Baby and Me Sweater

Here's the beginning
of the baby opening.

While it's spring, I'm still keenly aware of how awkward staying warm while baby wearing was this past winter. Waiting till next winter to come up with a solution seems silly, and now's the time to solve this problem. There are a few baby wearing coats being made which retail for anywhere from $100 to $200, but most need to be imported from overseas. I might still opt for a shelled baby wearing jacket eventually. However, for the moment I'm working on something which I hope will work for most winter days, save the most extremely cold ones, as our Virginia winters aren't too terrible. Often a heavy sweater or fleece coat is sufficient given you're properly layered underneath.