Res Originalis: Baby Tanner's Little Vest

During the first great baby boom of my life (two summers ago), it felt like everyone I knew having a baby was having a boy baby. And though I loved knitting for them, I didn't think it was nearly as fun as it would have been for girl babies, what with all the frills and pink and little tiny versions of currently trendy clothing. Maybe I just have more experience as a knitter now, but I am finding myself much less limited than I originally though with baby boy knits. And in fact, I am finding them just as fun as baby girl knits!



Pattern: Improvised v-neck sweater vest
Yarn: Little bits of Dale of Norway's Baby Ull in blue and white and RYC Cashsoft 4-ply in grey ("Weather")
Needles: US 4 circs
Start to Finish: March 12 - April 3, 2009

This vest was made for the brand new son of two dear friends -- Kelly, whom I've known since about 8th grade and lived with my first year in San Francisco, and her husband Joey, whom I've known since kindergarten (in fact, I had a huge, unrequited crush on him somewhere around 3rd grade, but luckily this has never been an issue in my friendship with Kel :) ). This is the same little dude who received this blankie via his mother's shower, but I thought I needed to start him off right with something he could wear as well.

Using the Yarn Standards measurements for a 3-6 month old, I kind of made up the vest as I went along, leaving the body straight, then decreasing at the armholes. I started with 2x2 ribbing, then after the vest was done picked up stitches and added 2x2 ribbing to the armholes and v-neck as well. It's not visible in the photo, but the back and front of the right shoulder were not seamed, but left as separate pieces, hemmed with 2x2 ribbing, then buttoned closed. The thick blue and grey stripes are 5 rows each, the thinner are 1 row each, and the white stripes are 2 rows. All was done in the round until I divided the front and back at the armholes. All yarns used are some form of superwash, so I didn't try steeking or anything fancy. Somehow I seem to have misplaced the closeup photos I took of the vest before taking it to its new home (seriously, how does one "misplace" digital photos??)...otherwise I would have written more specifics. Unfortunately, my notes on this project are very, very poor.

The photo above is the ultra-cute Tanner on Easter morning. What a compliment to have my little vest as part of his first Easter outfit! And I hope he likes it, too (I myself have decided to interpret his movement in the photo as a gesture of excitement rather than a "Get this off me NOW!" type of protest.). This is one adorable and sweet little guy...though with parents like his one can hardly be surprised!