Presto Chango

Believe it or not this was the first time I knitted a sweater. I chose this pattern for several reasons but the main three are these:

1. My friend Val designed the pattern
2. It didn't look too hard
3. I love the story behind the sweater.

When I found out that my friend was having a baby I knew I wanted to make a cute baby sweater but I just wasn't sure which one. I had never made a sweater before but come on...I can turn a heel on a sock how hard can a baby sweater be?

Well, when I finally settled on Presto Chango I went to my LYS and picked out a yarn that I liked.

I chose the Trendsetter Yarn Scubidu! I loved how the yarn had so many complimentary colors that I could use as the front panel of the sweater and a speckled white yarn for the body of the sweater. It was the perfect choice!

I got home, printed the pattern and began to cast-on the stitches! It was no time when i had finished the back and was casting on more stitches for the sleeves! Crazy how time flies when you are working on something that you love! I had only worked on the sweater about 5 hours when I had the whole body finished! 5 HOURS! I don't know about any of you but that is fast for me!
Look how cute my stitch markers are! They are little sheep! I had to use them because I kept forgetting to do the 4 seed stitch for the collar.

I didn't start the first front panel until the next day which happened to be Saturday. My husband and I were going to the John Mayer concert at Red Rocks so we had to get there really early to make sure we got good seats (we were in general admission...which at Red Rocks is really good). What else was I supposed to do with my time? Yep, I knit! Right there in the car amidst people all around me drinking, smoking (legal and illegal things) there I was with my sticks in hand...knitting a baby sweater :-)

I underestimated my knitting skills because I only brought enough yarn to make one of the three panels I wanted to make. Wouldn't you know it that even before the opening band took the stage I was done with the panel and had NOTHING ELSE to work on!

#1 rule in public knitting: always have enough to last the whole time!!!

So, there I sat for the next four hours with NOTHING TO WORK ON! Oh well, at least I had good company!

Well, I the next day I worked on the next two panels I wanted to make and made a quick tip to the JoAnns up the road to pick out the right buttons. I was really happy that I had taken the sweater and the panels with me to match up the buttons because what I thought were going to be the right size turned out to be too small! Crisis averted!

I settled on the purlesent purple ones since purple is my favorite color and I thought they looked the best with the other panel colors. When I got home I got the buttons on the sweater and voila! Je suis fini!