Baby ballerinas

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Two of my friends had babies this fall and baby knitting is just the best -- you get adorable results quite quickly, unless you get into baby blankets, which are rewarding in a different way. Now, the knitting of the blankets went smoothly and hence completely undocumented. Next up, I decided to make little sweaters. 

One of my friends used to do professional ballet and once I saw a few ballerina wraps online, I knew that was the sweater of choice. It took forever to settle on the design and the yarn colour. But I finally ended up essentially following the pattern here: https://thecompletefabrication.blogspot.com/2007/11/seamless-baby-kimono.html?m=1 

I modified the pattern slightly. I wanted stripes and this meant that yarn overs right at the border looked awkward, so I changed it up a bit while keeping the correspondng increases. Here is the general description. 

Cast on 36 stitches. Right away we will separate panels for two front panels, two sleeves and the back panel. You will place 4 markers and later on increase on each side of each marker. 

Row 1: k1, kfb, place marker, kfb, k4, kfb, place marker, kfb, k18, kfb, place marker, kfb, k4, kfb, place marker, kfb, k1

We will begin the sleeve raglan increases basically right away -- it's a baby sweater after all, they are tiny. We will knit into front and back of each stitch on each side of the marker, this is what will make the sleeve increases and hence borders.  

Row 2 and all even rows: purl across

Row 3: k1, kfb, knit until one stitch before next marker, kfb, move marker, kfb, knit until one stitch before next marker, kfb, move marker, kfb, knit until one stitch before next marker, kfb, move marker, kfb, knit sleeve, kfb, move marker, kfb, knit until one stitch remaining, kfb, k1

Row 3 and all the following rows translate to the following with increases in between: 

  • border stitch, 
  • front panel, 
  • sleeve,
  • back panel,
  • sleeve,
  • front panel. 
Specifically we have: 

Row 3: k1, kfb, knit front panel, kfb, move marker, kfb, knit sleeve, kfb, move marker, kfb, knit back, kfb, move marker, kfb, knit sleeve, kfb, move marker, kfb, knit front panel, kfb, k1

Continue repeating rows 3 (with all the increases) and 4 (all purls) until there are about 50 stitches on the back panel (I did 54), that is between second and third markers. I decided to alternate the patten from stripes to non-stripes, so I also had to switch my yarn from 3 colours to one. This affected the pattern itself in no way. 

Next up, make the sleeves: k1, kfb, k to first marker, move sleeve stitches to waste yarn, knit back stitches, move sleeve stitches to waste yarn, knit to last stitch, kfb, k1. You can keep one marker for each sleeve to help with determining the length of the piece. 

Next row:  purl across

Now, the lower body is a simplified version of the upper body.

Row 1: k1, kfb, knit to last stitch, kfb, k1

Row 2: purl 

Continue repeating rows 1 and 2 until there are about 50 stitches between your markers and the edge, ie the side panels are the size of the back panel. You should have about 150 stitches total -- I had 54 times 3 stitches.

To ensure my border doesn't curl, I did a couple of rows of the garter stitch in beige followed by red, with no more increases, just straight border. Bind off. 

For the sleeves, I picked up 3 extra stitches in the armpit area to ensure I can then close the hole with the extra yarn tail. I put the marker in the middle of the sleeve at the armpit to identify the midpoint. I knit 8 rows, did a decrease round (ssk, knit to last 2 stitches, k2tog) and then did, I think, 5 more decrease rounds every 4 rows. Finish off with a couple of rows of garter stitch so the sleeve ends do not curl and bind off. 

That was basically it! Except I decided to go around the whole side seam with a single crochet border in red -- it felt like bringing the whole piece together considering the sleeves and the bottom had a red finish. Finally, for the ties, I made a two colour crochet cord (there are many tutorials online, I watched a few before doing mine) and attached it to the bottom. 

Voila!! The cutest little ballerina wrap for a brand new baby ballerina. 

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