Phil'Onde Baby Sweater: January 2008 Archives

If you were expecting a quilting post, well, I was hoping to have one up, but last Thursday, which is usually my day to get some quilting work done (it's my day off during the week), ended up being a day that both John and I spent the day home suffering from a little bit of food poisoning.  It was hard enough to take care of Z let alone think about standing up to square up quilt blocks, so the quilt got ignored last week in favor of something that could be worked on while I sat on the floor with a baby.  (To give the sweet Z baby a lot of credit, she was a little angel during the day, and I was feeling much better by the evening when she started to get a little fussy... probably because her parents were both just so fussy themselves!)

On one of my recent trips to Macy's on State Street (how do I miss Marshall Field's... let me count the ways...) I saw the Ralph Lauren baby collection.  One of the things that I loved was the set of ombred baby garments for spring.  We're planning on a little vacation to Florida in early March, and they seemed like they would be perfect for that.  But then my sense of practicality kicked in and I remembered that I had something in my stash that would create the same effect and would create a much more special memory for me of Z's first trip to the ocean. 

A long time ago (probably back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth), Phildar introduced and then quickly discontinued their Phil'Onde yarn.  Phil'Onde creates an ombred coloration in the garment as you knit.  If you remember my Phil'Onde Pull, you'll remember the effect the yarn creates.  I've really enjoyed that garment, and since Phil'Onde is mostly acrylic (but very soft and very nice -- not plasticky feeling at all), it's machine washable and also a sensible yarn for a baby garment.  I actually bought yarn for my sweater and then bought some for a sweater for John and, er, for the first of my nieces. I made the sweater for me, but never really got motivated to make the other two.  Now even my second niece is much bigger than the garment I was planning to make, even in the largest size.  Ah well, I guess we all know which road is paved with good intentions...

It does seem to be true, however, that if you wait long enough, things come back into style.  I've seen ombred things in a number of places (it seems to be trendy in shoes these days), so Z will have the opportunity to be a trendy beach baby.   What makes this garment a real treat to make is that it is all in the round.  So, even feeling lousy, it's not too hard to et a couple of rounds in here and there.  And, like all Phildar patterns that I've worked, it has just enough clever bits to keep the mostly mindless stockinette bits more entertaining.