I finished Charlie’s Little Coastal Pullover a little bit ago (previously posted about here), but the timing coincided with the beginning of spring, and so I was initially expecting to save it for fall wear. We’ve been spending the past week on our yearly vacation in Down East Maine near Acadia National Park, though, and I had the foresight to throw the sweater into Charlie’s suitcase at the last minute. Aside from being absolutely beautiful, the cool Atlantic breezes creates perfect morning sweater weather temperatures!
For our petite 4 year old who seems to be all arms and legs, I knit the size 2 but added length to both the body and sleeves to align more with the size 6. As most of you know, I don’t typically knit garments top-down, but I make exceptions sometimes for children’s sweaters, as it is easy to add length to the garment if the recipient unexpectedly has a growth spurt mid-winter (or the item in question is too well-loved to tuck away after just one season of wear).
When I started the sweater back in January, Charlie was deep in the middle of a hardcore purple phase, so The Fibre Co. Cumbria in Purple Moor Grass was a obvious choice. (She has since declared her favorite color is “blue” or “all of them”. I’m still trying to suss out if this means she likes rainbows, or really does just love every color.) Despite its lack of blue or rainbow-ness, she still claims to love the sweater, and has worn it a bunch this week when the weather calls for something cosy and warm.
I really like how neck of the sweater is worked, as the increases and cast-on stitches create a nice crew shaping, rather than the high rectangle or faux boat typical of top down raglans. The end result is not only a nicer, more comfortable fit, but also a much more finished look and is easy to pull on, even over the proportionally larger head kids tend to have. She is wearing the sweater over a tank top dress, and said it was “cosy, soft, and warm!”
Its pretty amazing to see how much Charlie has grown since I made her last Knitbot sweater – a Tiny Rocky Coast out of The Fibre Co. Canopy Fingering back in 2012! – KGO