Little Red Riding Hood

I have been working on this knitted hooded jacket for some time now and have been planning it since before Shoshone was born. Well, last night I finally got it finished... although I should probably say "this morning," as it was 4am!

Finished cardigan, with a button from my nan's button stash :)

As soon as I saw this pattern in Simply Baby by Debbie Bliss, I knew I wanted to make it for any potential future daughter... At the time Wiyot was a baby and there were no immediate plans for baby number 2!

Fast forward a year or two... or three? and I began looking for the yarn to make this jacket. Although the picture in the book was really nice, for me this pattern was screaming to be made in RED! After a bit of a hunt I found a suitable aran weight yarn in my local craft store. They had just 3 balls left, lucky for me that was just the amount I needed :D

I quite enjoyed knitting this project, as it was made slightly different to cardigans that I've made previous. In my past knits the two front pieces, the back and the sleeves are all worked separately and then seamed together at the end. However, for this one you start by doing the bits individually and then join them together when you get the the under arms and work the yoke all in one piece. It doesn't seem that weird now, but when I first read the pattern I was quite surprised.

The biggest challenge the pattern posed was the seam joining the hood to the neck. Luckily I had my new found sewing skills to call on, else I think I would have really struggled easing in all the fullness of the hood... especially since there were no instructions as to how to do this in the book :/ Not sure what the usual method of doing this would be in knitting, but I basically ran a line of stitches through the hood, gathered it, matched up the centre hood to the centre back and then did my best at joining the two together... Seams to have worked ok (pun intended!)

The seam where the hood joins the back of the jacket

When I first began knitting I hated it when all the knitting was done and I had to start joining all the pieces together, I found it a real chore and frequently abandoned the project at this point to begin knitting something else... very sad I know! Now I actually enjoy doing the seams and am getting much better at them... and quicker! Think they turned out pretty well on this one, fairly invisible in most places. Still not quite happy with the one along the top of the hood though. It turned out better than the one on the poncho, but still not as invisible as I would like... Any tips would be gratefully received!

The seam along the left side of the jacket, along the arm and in the underarm area

The hood seam, can see the depression when the two sides are joined and there is a bit of bulkiness on the inside

Well now the little red hooded jacket is done, so I guess it's time for my mom to start looking out for the wolves... and not the Wolverhampton Wanderer kind she usually watches!

Shoshone with her favourite book