First Baby Garment!

I have completed my first baby garment! Huzzah! Twenty tails and all!

A friend recently had a baby, so I whipped this do dad, the Gilet Aourell (available as a free .pdf through ravelry), together in the hopes that she would like it.

The, pattern, being a french translation, took a little figuring out, but the actual project is, itself, straight forward, once you grasp what the directions are directing you to do. 

A separate knitting friend, who is a huge fan of Elizabeth Zimmerman, suggested that I use Zimmerman's advice for buttonholes: Make buttonholes on both button bands so you ensure you know where the buttons should be placed. Then, when you attach the button, just weave the extra buttonhole closed! I think it was good advice, and I appreciated it. 

My biggest complaint with the project was the 16 or 20 so odd ends to weave in! Knit with two strands, with knit on button bands and separate collar, the ends just added up! All the ends around the front facings of the collar did make them a little stiff, but hopefully they will be fine.

My mistake: I dislike seaming only slightly less than I dislike weaving in ends. I took it upon myself to try something... challenging. Instead of leaving the side seams to be sewn up at the end, I picked up the stitches from the back as I knit the front, to make the piece truly seamless.

Right Side Seam

Left Side Seam

It worked out okay. I don't know if it's because it's more difficult to pick up stitches in that direction, or because it's the side I did first, but the right side seam is less smooth, and more cumbersome, than the left seam. The (lack of) left  seam is something I am happy with.

Another problem I had, as you can see in the first picture, was maintaining the same color repeat. Getting the colors to line up the same way again after a break in the yarn, a knot, or breaking the yarn to knit the second side, was impossible.

Which, as noted in above, leads to my complaint about the yarn. It's basic acrylic. Nothing to complain about there. The colors are pretty. My complaint about the colors is related to using it doubled up, which would be a problem with any yarn with a color repeat held doubled. Color repeats and holding yarn doubled just seem a recipe for trouble. The complaint! I found a knot!  I know it happens, but still... a knot! It was only one, though, and only in one of the two skeins, though it did account for one of my problem places with the color repeat.

Would I knit it again? Yes, I enjoyed it. And I think it's super cute.

Gilet Aourell, picked up stitches for side seams, 3 mo., #6 needles, approx. 370 yards of Bernat Softee Baby Ombres & Prints in Prince Pebbles, 2 strands held together.