FO: Wee Manu

My husband's cousin had a baby girl this summer. Of course I had to knit something for her!



Pleas excuse lumpiness. I only have grown-up sized hangers and it is making it hang funny.

Pattern: Mini Manu by Kate Davies

Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash (red) and Rowan Pure Wool DK (purple)

Mods: i-cord edging in a contrasting colour. I had done my provisional cast-on with the purple yarn, and liked the colour combination a lot, so decided to finish it off with the same purple.



Notes:
This turned out super cute, if I do say so myself. For a baby sweater it was a bit of a slog, though. The pattern is ALL ABOUT the fiddly details. Mostly worth it: I-cord bind-offs are so tidy and i-cord button holes are amazing, but damn. Never-ending finishing.

There were some editing glitches with the pattern - nothing insurmountable, though. For example, the instructions state to make 5 buttonholes, even though the pattern photos show 3. I was blindly following the instructions and completely overlooked the pattern photos, so I did 5 buttonholes. Not that much of a problem - I actually had 4 buttons to use, and then decided that looked bad, so I used 3 buttons and sewed up with extra holes. Worked out in the end. Also at one point the pattern cut out and I had to wing it until the next step. (During the pocket instructions, if memory serves.) Again, worked out fine, but I was surprised to see that.

The best thing about knitting this was learning about Sunday Short Rows. If, like me, you have never felt totally comfortable with how your short rows look, give these a try. They are wrapless, practically invisible, and reasonably simple to execute. Brilliant. Will knit again.

I will think very hard before knitting teeny tiny wee pockets on something again, though. As cute as they are, I'm not sure it was worth the fiddliness.