To all good things must come an end,
At least I’ve heard ’tis true,
And so MagKnits, our patterned friend,
we bid farewell to you… *

 

Oh dear. No more MagKnits. I understand why they would want to pull the plug, but it’s so sad that they weren’t able to do it less abruptly. So many beautiful patterns lost forever in the pixelated universe of the intraweb, perhaps never to be seen again. Sad for me, but even more sad for the designers. I hope that they will be able to recover what they’ve worked so hard to publish and maybe someday (I hope!) their work will be available on Ravelry. I know my Favorites list will never be the same.  ~Sigh~  Just goes to show you that when you find a pattern you love, you shouldn’t wait – knit it now, print it now, download it now, or you might find yourself adrift without that beautiful new project bliss. Some things on the internet, it seems, are just not made to endure. 

But this pattern, The February Baby Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmermann, it does endure. You see its incarnations everywhere. And here, finally, is my very own to share with you……

 

 

 

 

Pattern: February Baby Sweater (Baby Sweater on Two Needles; Best Baby Sweater) by Elizabeth Zimmermann from Vogue Knitting: American Collection

Yarn: Valley Yarns’ Longmeadow; Approximately 2.25 skeins in Seafoam

Needles: Size 6 bamboo circs for body and Size 6 Susan Bates dpn’s for sleeves

Mods: Worked the sleeves in the round, and omitted the decreases at the bottom edge, but other than that knit this one pretty much to pattern.

New Techniques:  First time using a provisional cast on (for the sleeves).  Worked pretty well and wasn’t nearly as scary as I’d thought it might be.

Comments: I think this pattern would probably be pretty frustrating for a true beginning knitter.  Not that the techniques are especially difficult, but because EZ tends to present it as a “recipe” rather than a pattern.  This is my first EZ pattern, but I do hear this is typical for her and though that’s lovely after you’ve been knitting for a while, I think I would have been really unlikely to finish this sweater if this was the very first garment I ever attempted.  I’m pretty happy with the results, though I dropped quite a few stitches under one arm when removing them from the provisional cast on.  So, I know there’s errors under there even if the recipient may never notice them :(  I don’t like that feeling, but there was no way to make it “perfect” without ripping out the whole garment and since it’s already 6 months too late, I needed to get it finished and make it snappy.  I’m not sure I’d want to work the sleeves in the round again – it was nice from a finishing aspect, but I don’t know if it turned out as nicely as it could have if I’d knit them and then seamed them.  Who knows.  I’m so done with this though! 

 

* Crappy poetry courtesy of knittymuggins.  Please do not copy said crappy poetry.  Not like you’d want to, but you know, just in case.  Thanks!

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