Hoody for Chiquita

Looking at my stash recently I was struck by the fact that I have a few sweaters worth of yarn that I just "save", often indefinitely, in favor of smaller, "safer" projects. So this year I am hoping to take another look at these yarns in the hopes that inspiration will strike, like it did for this one.

Pattern: Knitting Pure & Simple #232 Children's Hooded Tunic by Diane Soucy

Size: Child's 8-10
Yarn: Interlacements Oregon II Worsted
Needles: US 8 / 5.0 mm

This is a pattern that I bought years ago, knowing it would be perfect for Chiquita. Since she is at the largest size now, it was time to use it before she outgrew the pattern! And I am so glad I did. She loves this pattern, especially the hood. In the last year she has really been developing her own style, but this is a hand-knit that still seems to have a place in it.

I had two minor modifications to the pattern. One was to have a slightly smaller chest circumference due to gauge. As Chiquita tends towards the bean-pole side this was perfect as long as I kept the lengths for the most part. I also shortened the sweaters the length of the front and back flaps, though, as they really were excessively long. As it is, you can see it still has enough length to be considered tunic-style.

My only complaint was the fact that the no row-gauge was given, but the number of decreases to be done on the sleeves as determined by "until it is x length". Usually I do a quick row conversion to let me know how often to do my decreases, but here there was no way to know how many decreases to do! I just sort of fudged it until it looked good, though, which seems to have worked fine.

Also many thanks to all the people who stopped by to help me figure out my mystery yarn last week. With your help and some research time on Ravelry, I was able to identify it! I hadn't used this yarn before, and I have to admit I love the colors even if there seems to be a fair bit of excess dye.