The February Gansey, or why I love EZ.

I wanted to make a more masculine non-fussy version of the February Baby Sweater for my nephew. I didn’t want to make a cardigan, but I didn’t want to rewrite the pattern to fit over a large baby head. Guess what? Those features are already there.

Unvention- Knit the yoke in garter, then lap the button band stitches and knit it in the round. Instant placket pullover!!! No number tweaking required! The pattern works exactly the same.

Project Specs:

Pattern: February Baby Sweater from Knitter’s Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann

Yarn: I don’t know. I’ll guess acrylic, but it feels quite nice. My SIL gave it me several years ago, it was her mother’s before she lost her eyesight and was unable to continue crocheting. Recycle!

Needles and gauge: US sz. 7 / 4.50 mm a little less than 5 sts per in.

Modifications: Very few. I realize this looks drastically different than every other FBS around, but truly, I altered none of the original pattern numbers. What I did do was to lap the 4 buttonband stitches after the yoke and knit the rest of the sweater in the round.

Features: I think these are different than modifications. After the body/sleeve division I knit the body down first. I got a little bored and added in the patterning from Gaffer’s Gansey (Another EZ pattern- from Knitting Workshop). When it was long enough I split front and back to make that nice split hem in garter stitch. The back is longer than the front, since I forgot to put in short-rows. For the sleeves I picked up sts from the body-side-underarm-cast-on (utterly seamless garment I might add) and knit down to a garter stitch cuff on 2/3 the sleeve sts.

Parting Thoughts- This whole project was quite a gamble. I’ve never tried a yoke sweater before…. Or this pattern…. Or a non-raglan top down sweater…. and…. the yoke went a bit hoopity lumpity because I did too many ridges and it won’t fit my intended recipient….

…but it will fit my son. I am a happy knitter.