Saturday, October 17, 2009

Bobbled Bloomers without the Bobbles

I ordered some yarn from Jimmy Bean's Wool (my favorite online yarn store by far!) and accidentally only ordered a single skein of some Jezebel yarn by South West Trading Company. I didn't know what on earth I could make with a single skein but the yarn was too beautiful to sit and do nothing with! It's 100% wool that is hand dyed in luscious colors - far more beautiful in person than on the computer monitor. I was knitting a pair of Bobbled Bloomers by Cat Coyle from "Boho Baby Knits" for my cousin's new baby and thought that the single skein might make a itty-bitty pair of soakers for a newborn. So I casted on the medium sized pattern on U.S. 3 needles (since the yarn is a sock weight) and followed it using the single color and just followed the shaping. The result was a perfect tiny soaker - fit for a newborn.I love taking patterns and adjusting the size using different needles. Often if you choose to go down 3 sizes on needles (like I did on this pattern) you should go up a size on the pattern. If I had knit the smallest sized pattern with the sock weight yarn and U.S. 3 needles I would have ended up with a soaker that would fit a Cabbage Patch Kid... So take the time to knit up a swatch for gauge and with a little simple math (and a leap of faith) you can pretty much adjust any pattern for your sizing needs.This idea works well with many of my dog sweater patterns. Since I casually list these patterns for free from my experience knitting for my dogs - they are usually sized for a 6-10 lb dog. But adjusting a needle size up or down and yarn weight you can easily make the sizing for a 2-4 lb dog or 15-20 lb dog. Give it a try, it's kind of fun..

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