Knitted romper.

 

During the past year or so, I have become utterly obsessed with knitting.  In fact, if you've followed me on instagram, you'll see that that's what I've been up to, whilst seriously neglecting my blog.

I discovered some gorgeously knitted baby clothing while scrolling around Pinterest, which led me to connect with some instagram feeds that are just to die for.  Soft, cuddly, cute, cleverly-designed baby knits everywhere.  One gorgeous feed would lead to another - pictures of babies dressed top to toe in snuggly bonnets and rompers, topped with beautifully textured cardigans in the most gorgeous colours - I fell so much in love, I could hear little cartoon hearts popping all around my head.  It's stuff to make you swoon.

Most of the designs in the feeds I've been stalking are made by mothers and grandmothers in the Scandanavian region - most predominantly Norway and Denmark, where I guess knitting is a way of life due to the cooler climate.  These ladies seem to knit up pieces in the blink of an eye - a photo posted on their feeds of a cast on row seems to materialize into a fully completed garment three days later, and often they are working on three or more projects at one time.  It's mind-blowing!

And the fact that many of these very talented women now sell their patterns online is wonderful news for everyone who loves to knit.  And many of them have been translated into English, which is even better news.

I have always been in love with rompers and bonnets; both when I sew, and now also when I knit.  This romper is made from a design by Ministrikk, and is a wonderful pattern to start with if you are looking to dip your toes into knitting something beyond bonnets or booties for a baby.  Ministrikk offers many (though not all) of their patterns in English - you can check out which ones by clicking on the 'English' tab along the top of their page.  The patterns are sent to you in PDF form once you've paid via Paypal.  So you can buy it, pay for it and be knitting it ten minutes later ;)

 

The pattern is for a textured, vintage-styled romper that is knitted flat in two pieces and sewn up at the sides, with the straps buttoning at the back waist.  I've not yet knitted a romper with the textured pattern, but have made a few simple versions in plain stockinette, or with a pattern running up the centre.



The romper above is knitted with a panel of lace running up the centre.  I used chart A1 from the Sweet Alice dress from the Drops Design site.  The pattern is 16 stitches wide, and I needed an odd number of stitches so that the panel ran smack through the centre of the front, so I reduced it to a 15 stitch wide pattern by eliminating one of those purl stitches (symbolized  by the black dot) in the middle of the chart. 

 

The yarn I used to knit this was the Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, in Duck Egg blue (I think)  which is probably slightly thicker than the yarn recommended in the original pattern.  But I can never say no to this yarn, it is super soft and snuggly, and comes in so many beautiful colours!

This is a wonderful and easy to read pattern - it's been translated perfectly.  I find that alot of patterns from this part of the world are very differently written from ones that originate from the UK and Australia (which tend to dole out row by row instructions), so at first glance, it may be a bit strange.  But after reading through it, it all becomes quite clear and straightforward.  (Note: this pattern includes short row shaping in the back.  If you're not familiar with short rows, or any other technique on any knitting pattern, YouTube is a wonderful resource!)

And no, sadly, I don't have anyone to dress this in.  That's probably the worst thing about my knitting addiction.  All this squooshy, knitted goodness and no one to play dress ups :(  I'll be graduating onto knitting larger sized pieces for my kids soon, but in the meantime, these cute baby knits have me hooked.