Fall = the season of Phildar

This season looks like it's going to be full of a lot of Phildar knitting for me. First up, I just finished a baby sweater for my sister-in-law's new nephew. He was due to arrive around the time of Thanksgiving, but he decided to show up early... six weeks early! She had asked me to knit a sweater and hat for him a while back, but I kept thinking that I had until Thanksgiving to get anything done. Surprise! I didn't even have a pattern picked out when he made his arrival. Fortunately, though, I did have my newest knitting magazine, Tricotez Calin. This is my first time knitting from a French knitting pattern, so I think it was probably smart to start with something small. I'm not entirely convinced that I even followed the pattern exactly. I think it must say somewhere in there something about slipping the first stitch on the button side of each front. Anyway, it doesn't really matter because I'm happy with the finished product.

Pattern: No 4 La Veste from Tricotez Calin (Phildar Automne-Hiver 2006/07)

Yarn: Knitpicks Swish Superwash 4 balls of Dark Navy and 1 ball of Dublin for the smallest, 3 month size.

Adjustments: Well, the pattern calls for 7mm needles and has you hold the yarn double throughout. Okay, so I used US10.5 needles, but I really think there's a typo in the gauge they give you. I mean, is it possible to be using such huge needles and have a gauge of 23 sts x 17 rows = 10 cm square?! I really don't think so. I'm thinking they meant 13 sts x 17 rows. So, I pretty much ignored the gauge. Also, I completely left off the fake pockets.

Besides that, I also made two other major adjustments. First, the pattern has you knit the collar separately, then sew it on. I didn't do that. I picked up stitches, which I think worked fine, but when you look at the photo of their sweater compared to mine, the collar is definitely different. I'm not sure if my mistake was in the picking up stitches or not. Second, I added a crochet border to the whole thing and added a monogram. I felt a little weird added the crochet border since I've been reading EZ's thoughts on such things, but in this case it definitely needed it, plus I didn't have enough yarn to do a hat in navy.


So, I guess overall my first Phildar knit was not a total success, but definitely not a failure either. I'm extremely pleased with the finished product and that's most important. Next up, the cover sweater from Tricotez Calin for Baby Girl. Then, hopefully, I'll have enough Phildar practice under my belt to do this.