Finito!

At long last, the Little Star sweater is done. I think it took me about a month -- although the last 1.5 weeks were all finishing!


There are some fuzzy white specks on the sweater -- I think they are lint. I tried washing and drying the sweater, but the power went out in our apartment building as I was doing the laundry, so the sweater ended up being air-dried. I think if I wash and dry it again the specks will just fluff off. I'm also going to get some baby detergent and use that for the final washing so it will smell nice and "baby-like". This way, the sweater can be gifted pre-shrunk, and mom and dad (my cousin and his wife) don't need to worry about damaging it.

Anyways, here are the specs:
Pattern: Little Star, from the Zoe Mellor book "Adorable Knits for Tots"
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in "Wolverine Blue", "Barn Red", and "Cotton Ball" -- leftovers from the Sox sweater.
Gauge: About 5.25 sts/in.
size: The pattern called for 6 sts/in, so I made the 6-mo size, but got a sweater that is probably about an 18-mo size.

I still haven't decided what's next ... I've started to swatch the Koigu for socks, and I'm looking for a good toe-up sock pattern with a Dutch Heel. I might use the directions at this site.

I also have started a swatch using Knitpicks' Shine yarn -- I think this is the winner for the "Martha" sweater. Althought it knits to the same stitch gauge, It feels slightly heavier than the Paton's Grace I used for another swatch, so this one definitely won't have a matching tank made! I'm leaning towards the Violet or Turquise colors, as I don't have cardigans in either of those colors. A friend from my MIT Stitch and Bitch group bought a color card for those yarns, so I might try to sneak away to her office tomorrow to look at it and decide on a color for sure. I'm hoping to get the yarn before I go to Age Group Nationals at the end of this month, as we have an 8-hour car ride to Buffalo...