About the pattern
I have written a pattern for adults for using leftover DK yarn which is herebut really there is no reason why the younger generation should miss out so this is the Wacky Baby jumper. I considered the name carefully and thought “Leftover baby” didn’t sound quite right….
Anyway, this garment is a cardigan, because it can be a total pain to put a jumper on a baby. It is an outer garment knitted with two strands of DK held together, starting from the bottom up. The body is knitted back and forth and then divided for fronts and back. The shoulders are joined with three-needle bind-off and the sleeves are picked up and knitted downwards in the round from the armholes.
A large optional hood is picked up from the neck and worked seamlessly.
A neat i-cord completes the garment, with buttonholes worked into the i-cord.
Skill Level
Adventurous Beginner. This garment has minimal shaping and techniques include cast on, bind off, simple increases and decreases, picking up stitches and i-cord.
Finished chest circumference 48.551.5, 54.5, 57, 60 cm 1920.25, 21.5, 22.5, 23.5 in
Yarn
It is difficult to be definite about the quantity of yarn needed for this jumper. Essentially, you need a bag of DK yarn. It should all be relatively similar in type, but as the idea is to use up leftovers, then it does not need to be identical; this is part of the charm. Don’t use chenille yarn as it has no stretch at all and will look terrible. Apart from this it’s up to you. If you have a lot of 4ply (fingering or sock) yarn to use up, you can substitute 1 strand of DK with 2 strands of 4ply.
I used about 400m of yarn for my 6m size sample. But you need to start with more than this to allow for matching, artistic licence and so on.