done and done

I finished the hooded kaftan from Special Knits by Debbie Bliss! Except for the embroidery. I'll get to that eventually. Maybe. It's cute as is, though, and it's not as huge on Baby as I thought it would be. It's mainly just the hood that's too big. The sweater needs some blocking to stop the edge of the hood from turning in. I didn't have a long enough size 3 circular to pick up all the stitches needed for the edging around the hood (184 stitches) so I used a 28" size 2 instead. That probably contributes some to the excessive curling in.

Knowing that the hood is so big proportionally to the rest of the sweater, I'll make adjustments for the next hoodie I'm making from the same book. So far I've just done the back, but it's so much quicker going since it's on size 7 needles, and I'm doing the 3-6 month size, rather than size 5 needles doing the largest 18-24 month size.

The other project I finished recently was this headband/panta. Big Sister is modeling it, though it's actually adult size. It's so cute on her, especially with her little braids, so I'm definitely going to knit her one as well.

I used this pattern, but it's got some mistakes. Luckily, I had been warned of them before hand, so I was able to make it through unscathed. The main issue is with the length at which changes are made. To the halfway point, it's fine. But then it starts over with the lengths, rather than working backwards to make it symmetrical. So from the halfway point, you actually need to decrease the P5 to P4 at 27 cm, from P4 to P3 at 30 cm, from P3 to P2 at 34 cm, and from P2 to P1 at 40 cm. Then complete at 48 cm. Oh, and in the pattern it says to decrease from P4 to P2, but this is obviously just a typo, and it means P4 to P3.

As for adjustments, rather than knit the 1 stitch garter stitch border, I slipped purlwise the last stitch of each row (and then knit the first stitch on right side rows, and purled the first stitch on wrong side rows). And I did a provisional cast on with a crochet chain, and used kitchener stitch to finish. But next time, I think I'll follow the pattern and just cast on normally and seam from the live stitches at the end because it would be nice to have a little bit of seam to be able to locate the center by feel.

My handy dandy Vogue Knitting reference book describes how to do this in the grafting section. By the by, I love this book. I use it all the time for when I'm learning a new technique, or when I've forgotten how to do one I learned once before. KnittingHelp.com is great for when you're in front of a computer, or when you need to see video of a technique, but when I'm just kicking around at home, I prefer to look in my books first. The other knitting reference book I have, The Knitter's Companion, is great too, but it's much smaller, so doesn't have all the info Vogue Knitting has. Perfect for in your knitting bag, though.