hoodie half done

I'm knitting the hooded kaftan from Debbie Bliss' Special Knits : 22 Gorgeous Handknits for Babies and Toddlers for baby. Since I took this photo a few days ago I've actually finished the hood so all I have left is the sleeves, and then the embroidery. I haven't knit a sweater in a long time. It's slow work, especially on such small needles (size 5). Oh, and as you can see, I actually knit a whole gauge swatch for once. I'm impressed with myself. I usually have no patience to do the swatch, but I figured it's worth it this time.

I'm using JaggerSpun Zephyr DK which is 50% merino wool and 50% silk. It's really soft and lovely to knit. The silk gives it a shiney sheen which I like. I'll be doing the embroidery with the same yarn in laceweight. Since I've done virtually no embroidery before (see the daisy on the bag below) I'll be practicing on the handy gauge swatch. See, I knew there was a good reason I knit it! :)

I usually Google patterns I'm planning on knitting before I start to see if there's any errata, or just general problems others have had with the pattern. This one seems to have caused some confusion surrounding the hood. I can see how it might have been confusing if I hadn't read it was going to be confusing, but knowing in advance actually made it quite clear to me. The pattern calls for the back to be completely bound off, and then the base of the hood is cast on separately, and then stitched to the bound off back. I figured that's kind of unnecessary, so I kept the back stitches live and just knit the hood from there. There are more stiches called for in the hood than the back, so I just increased evenly across the back on the next row. It seems to have worked out fine. I also did double bind offs along the shoulders and for the top of the hood, so that I wouldn't have to sew them together later which would cause a bulkier seam. Being able to do things like that is one of the reasons I like knitting with the Denise Interchangeable Needles so much. It's so easy to move stitches around from needle to needle to holder and back to needle.