Waffles!

Here’s my version of the Waffles for Brunch Sweater by Jean at Needles, Notes, and News.

I have not blocked it, so the ribbing pulls things in, but it will stretch out nicely and make a very cozy outer layer for a child. I knit mine from exactly three skeins of Lamb’s Pride Bulky from Little Knits. This was a fast, satisfying knit with no seaming-up afterwards. The shoulder seams get taken care of in a three-needle bind-off, the sleeves are picked up around the arm openings, and the collar is worked off of “live” body stitches. All that’s left after knitting the last stitch is weaving in a minimal number of ends.

Since Jean wrote this as a charity pattern, I’m planning on passing my mine along—probably to Afghans for Afghans, as they specifically request animal-fiber knits and because I feel some uncomfortable personal responsibility for all those pre-9/11 years when my government funded the Taliban, thus helping to deprive a generation of women of basic literacy and personal freedoms. (How I hate the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend politics! All too often the enemy of my enemy is just a big thug taking advantage of my fears to pursue his own unsavory goals.)

As I’d mentioned earlier, one lovely by-product of this knit is that I now have a template for designing my own toddler-sized pullovers. I’ll keep the darling yoke and collar, but have lots of fun playing with other stitches for the body. I’d like to replace one right- and one left-hand column of ribs with a cable for a sort of suspenders look. Then I can substitute a broader, more elaborate textured stitch panel for the three center ribs. My fingers are itching to get started.