Tiny Orange Tea Birthday Sweater for A

Whoooosh! A's birthday sweater really took no time to knit. It's the Tiny Tea Leaves Cardigan  and it turned out just as I wanted it to (which is fabulous because it's only my second sweater ever!)

The pattern is beautifully written, easy to follow, and the result is a really wearable sweater. I used the recommended yarn, madelinetosh tosh vintage, in coral. I was worried while the yarn was in the mail on its way here, that the colour might after all be too, well, orange. And even in the hank it appeared more orange than I had expected when I first ordered the yarn. But when I knit it up it turned less orange, and more (as it's name would suggest) coral. There are beautiful pink and pale yellowy-beige tones running through the yarn. A really feminine yarn that shows beautifully against A's dark hair. And what a pleasure it was to knit with. This yarn is so tightly wound, and yet remains springy and light. But, even though it is superwash merino (washable) I couldn't bring myself to throw it into the washing machine. So, a nice bath instead with wool wash.


Here's the kicker. Although this yarn is machine washable, it is not suggested that you dry this yarn in a machine dryer. Guess what? After the yarn got wet, it grew. Ridiculously. My 4 by 4 inch swatch grew to a monstrous 6.5 by 6.5 inch swatch. I panicked. I went on the internet. Read that many people experienced this with superwash merino. Read that I should try throwing it into the dryer for 20 minutes or so, then laying out to dry the rest of the way. It was only a gauge swatch. I had nothing to lose. Threw it into the dryer. Fetched it after 15 minutes. It looked, and felt, exactly as it had the moment I bound off. It was a 4 by 4 inch swatch again. The stitches were lined up perfectly. It was bouncy and springy.


See, I don't mind giving the sweater a bath. Really, it doesn't take long and it's not all that difficult. It's the drying part that gets to me. Especially with a sweater. Let me tell you, this sweater could take days to dry (especially in the winter). It really, really helps that I can put this into the dryer for a bit. In fact, after I saw that my swatch was fine, I let it dry all the way in the dryer. Came out perfect. Probably wouldn't do that with the sweater, but it feels good knowing that I could.


I am very happy with this sweater, and this yarn. And very happy with A's reaction to it. She loved it the moment she tried it on. Although, the scoop neckline was a little too scooped for her little shoulders. So, I added a single crochet edging to the neckline, followed by another row of single crochet, decreasing every third stitch (I used the invisible decrease.) Worked just right. It looks wonderful The neckline is still scooped, but much less so (it isn't going to fall right off of her!) And the crochet edging added stability to the neckline. It isn't so floppy and stretchy anymore. A good thing when five year old hands are buttoning and unbuttoning. 

And speaking of buttons, A picked them out herself! Much more sophisticated than I expected. Perfect buttons. Although, she did first pick out dinosaur buttons. But alas, they were too small for this project. We bought them anyway. You never know.