On the needles - J's Wallaby

I started a sweater for my son as soon as I finished up my holiday gift knitting. I had purchased the pattern and supplies several months ago, but then my to-do list filled up with scarves and other quicker projects. I am glad I saved this one because it has been fun to try it on him as it progressed.

I'm using the Wonderful Wallaby pattern, published by Cottage Creations. The pattern booklet has information for making this same sweater in a toddler size 2 all the way to an adult x-large! One thing I liked about this pattern is that, similar to the Baby Surprise Jacket, you just keep knitting and then have only a small amount of seaming at the end. (Under the armpits in this case.)

I'm making J the size 4 using Plymouth Encore worsted.

I'm surprised at how quickly this is knitting up. It helps that I started while we were on Christmas vacation and then got a huge amount of it done last week while staying up too late watching Conan's last week. It has been fun because although it is mostly knit stitch, it is broken into little easy projects - a sleeve, the waistband, the pouch, and so on.

The sweater is supposed to mimic a hooded sweatshirt with a kangaroo pocket. I get a kick out of how the pocket is fused right to the front of the sweater. You knit the first 6 -8 inches of the sweater and then go back and pick up stitches just above the waistband with a new ball of yarn. Later you knit a row of sweater together with the top of the pouch and they join very smoothly.

I tried to take a photo here of the join between the bottom of the pouch and the sweater...

After knitting the sleeves and torso individually, they are joined into one big loop, with the underarms left open until the end...

J trying out the pouch...

After a week of the Tonight Show and a disappointing Vikings game we have...
I've been working on it for just under a month and just have the hood left! J really loved trying it on this morning and didn't want to take it off. At first the needles and extra yarn bothered him, but very quickly he saw how much fun it would be to have a ball of yarn attached! It's roomy, but I was hoping he'd be able to use it for more than just this winter.