Five-Hour Baby Sweater.
February 6th, 2008
My friend Ing is having a baby, and I’m taking a little time off from the F’n'F lapghan to toil away on the five-hour baby sweater that I mentioned a few posts ago.
This is one of those classic patterns floating around the web that has eleventy-million variations–some for size, some for gender, some for weird aesthetic reasons. I’m doing mine straight-up and old-school in a pleasant pastel green, something like the colour they use in psychiatric hospitals for people with mental health issues. Sooooooooooothing. (Not so much for the baby, but for the mother.) I may add a stripe or two as the skein falls a few yards short of what’s called for in the recipe.
It’s too soon to tell if it’s really a five-hour project, as I’m knitting a row here and a row there (and as usual increasing by too many or too few and then unknitting back). Ing has just entered her final trimester so while I certainly have more than five hours, I don’t exactly have five months. Asif is away on the first part of his journey and gets back about a week from now, so that should give me a little uninterrupted sweater time. Amy has also very gently and sweetly asked about my column which is a mere six weeks overdue. I think I’ll have to be sitting down to that sometime this weekend.
Oh, and snow.
8 Comments Add your own
1. toni | February 7th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
The first thing I ever knit was a 5-hour baby sweater, way back in 1988 (I think). I made it out of a scratchy navy-blue acrylic (probably Red Heart) and it took WAY longer than the name would imply. Of course, I’d never made anything before, so what did I expect? I didn’t have any children then and didn’t make it as a gift. It was a training project, of sorts. And I still have it, packed away in a “memory box,” along with a couple of other baby items I made later… ones that were actually used!
Thanks for bringing back that memory. And good luck with yours.
2. Jen | February 8th, 2008 at 2:57 am
Oh wow. I should bookmark that page…seems like I just hit that age, where everyone I know is suddenly having babies. Blankets are fun for the bus, but get boring after awhile.
3. Anne | February 8th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Hi, David,
I love the sweater. I’m going to print and save the pattern. Your comment about the color green reminded me of an experience I had as a 16 year old exchange student in Luxembourg in 1967. You should know that the population of Lux. consumes more alcohol per capita than any other country in the world. Something about being invaded so many times. Anyway, we were on a Catholic girls’ school field trip to the local brewery, where the walls were all painted a lovely pale blue. As I understood the gentleman speaking in French, this was explained as the color the world looks when slightly drunk, therefore encouraging serene, happy workers. I was very serene.
Anne
4. marjorie | February 9th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
That is an adorable sweater. I’m actually making one myself at the moment, but not that pattern. It’s a nice, relaxing raglan sleeved sweater for a six month old baby, with shaping at the shoulders. After that you just sail straight ahead alternating knit and purl rows. You only have to engage brain when approaching the buttonhole panel, and when dpn-ing the sleeves later. So, there’s plenty of time to glance out the window at the beautiful snow coming down.
5. Barbara | February 14th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Loved this blog enry. I just did the googling search for the 5 hour. Lots and lots of variations. My favorite was the one that eliminated the lacey area because it was too girly.
6. Edwin | February 18th, 2008 at 9:07 am
I was surprise that you talk about baby sweater. I saw the pattern, but for a girl. All my friends had boys. So, I kept searching and found the same pattern for a boy. Yeah!! I just finished the cuff to cuff baby sweater which I love, because you only have to seam up the sleeves and sides. I will do the five hours boy sweater after I finish the fingerless gloves for my husband’s bagpipe professor. I’m going to use plymouth yarn colorspun #7126 for the sweater. Good Luck on the sweater and I can wait to see it posted.
7. Liz | March 12th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Just followed the link from the new Knitty, and had to comment because I have never heard anyone besides me call a pattern a “recipe.” Then again, I also enjoy calling a skein a “loaf.” Um, like a loaf of bread. I can’t believe I just admitted that in public. Anyway, “recipe” made me smile. Thanks.
8. Jeff | March 13th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Thanks for this, and nice blog.
Found you through a link on a lace stole KAL. The tale on Real Men Knit.
And just in time too. Now, as I’m so far behind in the KAL, I’ll start on a sweater or two, as I will need one in October.
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