latest knitting achievement: a baby cardigan

Hey, look, I knitted an item of clothing which will fit a tiny human being. Go me!

After the success of my two hats earlier this year (which I have already worn loads thanks to a poor Scottish summer) I have ventured into garment knitting: a cardigan for my friends' baby which is due this month. I chose red (acrylic) wool as it's gender neutral and funkier than generic pastels. It'll look great teamed with pinks, blues, greens, yellows.... as my duvet cover helpfully demonstrates!

The pattern is the round neck cardigan variation from Stylecraft 4821. I chose it as it looked like a good beginner clothing project - plain stockinette stitch, ribbing, minimal shaping and all the pieces are sewn together by hand. My biggest challenge was picking up stitches for the buttonbands and neckline. I didn't enjoy that at all, but I got there after a few attempts. 

I also struggled with making the buttonholes as I kept miscounting stitches. I felt an immense sense of achievement once I finally made it to the end of the row. "I made buttonholes, yessssss!!!" 

I was going to wait until the baby was born to chose girly or boyish buttons, but in the end I decided I liked these chunky, plain red buttons from my stash. Ultimately they're more practical than awkward shaped novelty buttons. 

This may be a small project, but there was a lot of handsewing involved. A trade off for not knitting in the round I suppose. I'm still not sure what is the neatest seaming method (feel free to hit me up with links if you have any!) but I constructed the cardigan as neatly as I could manage.

Here's hoping my friends will love the cardigan! I'm very proud of my first knitted garment and feel more prepared for starting a bigger project, such as a cardigan for myself. I might even try knitting in the round!

All of my knitting progress is documented on my ravelry page so feel free to check it out if you're over there too.