Baby, baby

Life’s phases come in waves, it seems. Deaths, marriages, tragedies and periods of joy are never isolated, but cluster together to what can seem like mutual exclusion. Right now I seem to be in the midst of a deluge of babies.

The most recent pair were twins Isaac and Alice, the kids of Jennifer and Adam.

Now if there are two things that I know about babies, it’s that they grow really quickly and exude all sorts of gunk from every possible orifice. So sweaters for babies should not be too small and they should definitely be easily washable. The huge bonus of baby sweaters is how fast they knit up; the almost-instant gratification is just wonderful.

I chose Pippin, (Ravelry Link) by Gretchen Lichtman for both these sweaters. I wanted to try out a couple of different yarn types that I’ve not used before and so used Patons Decor and Patons New Canadian (which is actually discernibly different from the old).

I like the Decor better. I’m not generally a fan of acrylics, preferring natural materials, but sweaters for little kids really should be completely washable and dryable. Especially the sweaters of twins, whose parents need more than twice as much time to take care of them and for whom remembering whether a sweater should go in the dryer or not takes a definite second place to remembering who got fed/changed/bathed/burped/slept when. (Superwash wools are very expensive around these parts, but are also another option.)

The criticism of acrylics melting versus wool burning (wool turns to dust, acrylics melt and therefore can stick to skin) is a valid one, but I still feel quite strongly that if you are setting fire to your toddlers or allowing them to play with flames, you have other issues. The acrylic versus wool debate probably doesn’t figure very high on your radar if fire is a household plaything.

So here’s Isaac’s Sweater, in Patons Decor, colour “Rich Country Blue”. It took 356 yds to make this one. Size 6-12mos.