Tuesday 17 June 2008

Bare, Bears, Planes or What...?!

(Photos taken on my mobile phone as I was leaving the house this morning).

I don't know, what do you think?

What am I talking about?! Okay, here are some bears and planes for your consideration:

What are they for? Well, I have sewn up the neglected baby jumper UFO at long last and I am even almost happy with my seaming. Hurray! Sadly, it seems that I am the creator of the most boring (duck egg?) blue cotton baby jumper on earth. Sigh:

Not only is it exceptionally plain, it's surprisingly heavy. There is another problem too. The buttonholes in the pattern were simple YOs, created on 2.75mm needles.

As a result of this, my tension or both, they are too small for any buttons that I can think of. So I plan to use poppers and sew decorative buttons over the top. Maybe. So okay then, how do I save this top from its plainness?

1) Get over myself and leave it bare?

2) Sew these oversized novelty baby buttons to its front? Or is this a 'pull off and chew' risk for a one year old? If it is okay to sew a choking hazard to the front of a dull jumper, which ones do I use - teddy bears or aeroplanes?!

3) Do something else? A duplicate stitch something? What? I haven't found any decent duplicate stitch motifs on the web yet. Any suggestions?

She quietly winces, thinking that this is all just more time that needs to be spent trying to doll up something that she started about three years ago, which missed its deadline and if she doesn't pull her finger out, will also miss her second chance deadline (the original gift recepient's parents had another baby boy who has just had his first birthday).

The moral of the story is that if you are newly returned to knitting, standing in the queue to pay for a book that suggests that it is full of quick, achievable baby knits and you are holding sufficient 4-ply yarn for one of its patterns?

The book is fibbing - there'll be nothing quick about the knit at all.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think pick up a pocket across the front with garter edging. The child will never use the pocket but it will take up space on the front. and break it up a bit if that is what you want to achieve. I am so glad that you have finally finished it though. Funny to think that we met because I saw you were knitting this!

Oh and if you do use the buttons I opt for the bears.

Tina - omme i London said...

Yogicknitter has a good solution for breaking up the plainness of the front and I would take it one step further and use a navy wool for making a pocket and then use navy round small buttons for the fastening. To tie it all together, you could make a small navy stitch around the base of the rib on the sleeves and around the base of the neck line and hem.
Nice jersey though. I really like it and well done for completing it!

Roobeedoo said...

The pocket is a great idea! I think the buttons are a choking hazard. If I was a one-year-old I would want to chew on them for teething purposes. How about a little stash pocket on the sleeve too - for breadsticks and the like?

French Nanny said...

Why not do some freehand embroidery (in yarn) rather like Cosymakes does on her hats?