Hanna

Made for a friend's baby, with Wollmeise yarn the friend chose herself, in the Rhabarber colorway.

The stuff: Needles are size 8, or 5mm bamboo circulars. Gauge is 5 stitches and 6 rows per inch. Hanna is about a year old, so the measurements I’m assuming are: chest circumference 22″. Wrist circumference 5″, upper arm circumference about 7 1/2″. Shoulder width 3″, neck hole width 5″, bearing in mind that this is not a pullover so we don’t have to worry about accommodating that big baby head. What else? Oh, length from underarm to waist. Tricky, because this is supposed to tie around the waist, so I don’t want to make the sweater too long. I’ll say about 4 or 4 1/2 inches.

• channel-island cast-on, but with a one-strand tail (because I’m lazy about end-tucking), to cast on 19 stitches.
• knit three rows of garter stitch
• k across, yarn-over every third stitch for a total of 25
• on the next row, twist each yarn-over as you purl (or knit, if you knit backwards like I do) into it, so as to make the hole less gaping. The other sleeve will be knit in the other direction, so there’ll be decreases instead of increases. So you really don’t want to make the yarn-over holes a part of the design, though otherwise it might be a fine idea.
• knit even, mostly. increase (anyway you want - I used the yarn-over) at the beginning and end of rows 5, 13, 21, 29, 37, and 45. Now there are 37 stitches. Knit up 3 more rows, for a total of 48 rows, not including the ribbing.
• On the other needle, cast on 23, using the Invisible Crochet Cast On I, as described by Eunny Jang - you’ll have to scroll down to the second cast-on method there.
• Purl into those 23 cast-on stitches. Or knit, if you knit backwards like me. This provisional cast-on will unzip from the armpit downwards. Consider this row 1 of the right front.
• Row 2, knit across front and sleeve. Again on the empty needle, cast on 23 with the Invisible Crochet Cast On I. Knit 23 into that cast-on row, which again will unzip from the armpit. Note that the front of the sweater has 1 extra row. That’s okay.
• There should now be 83 stitches on the needles. Work even for 3 inches, or 20 rows (counting on the front side), finishing at the end of a knit row.
• Purl (or knit backwards) 41 stitches. place the remaining 42 on a holder. Knit those 41 back stitches up even for 5 inches, or 30 rows.
• Row 30 should be a knit row, so purl (or knit backwards) across, then cast on 42 stitches on the other end of the needle for the left front. Purl (or knit backwards) across those: this’ll unzip from the neck down.
• Work even for 19 rows. On row 20, knit along front and sleeve, place back (23) stitches on holder. Back is 68 rows high.
• Purl (or knit back) 37, place front (23) stitches on holder. Think of this as row 2 on the sleeve, and knit down to the wrist, decreasing once at each end of rows 5, 13, 21, 29, 37, 45

• knit to row 48
• row 49, purl 2, p2tg across = 19 stitches
• Cut the yarn.
• Channel-island cast on 19, knit 2 rows (garter stitch)
• Okay, it gets a bit fiddly here: Kitchener the cuff to the sleeve, with the purl-side of the last-knit rows facing out. That kitchener row will form the knit-row for the garter-stitch cuff. Does that make sense? Also, that row really needed to be tightened up once I had it finished.
• Mattress-stitch the sleeve closed. For the side, unzip the provisional cast-on, and do a 3-needle bind-off for 19 stitches. Bind off the next two stitches on each side separately, then 3-needle bind-off the last four. That makes the hole for the tie to pass through.
• Do the other side just like that.
• Pick up the right front stitches from their holder, starting at the neck end. Purl (or knit backward) into and bind off the first five. Purl across, come back.
• Bind off the first four. P across, come back.
• Bind off the first three…
• Bind off the first two…
• Continue binding off the first two stitches of each purl-row for, um… awhile. Until there are 16 stitches left on the needle.
• P2tg every other row (at the neck end) until there are six stitches left. Put them on a holder.
• Do the same for the left front, start at the neck end, follow the same decrease pattern. When there are six stitches left, do a single crochet edge all around the front and neck, starting with the six stitches on a holder.
• Tuck in ends, sew ribbon to each little 6-stitch front edge there. On the side of the front that will wrap under, thread that ribbon through the side-seam hold on the opposite side. All done!