the 7 month sweater (a cautionary tale)

My dear darling neighbor was expecting a baby last March.

In February, I decided I wanted to whip something up for that sweet little addition to our neighborhood.  By the time little B.W. was born, I had the body of a very adorable sweater, but no sleeves.

Fast forward 7 months...

I finally had those sleeves knitted on, added the button bands, sewed in the loose ends and attached some buttons. B.W. was 6 months old and growing bigger every minute. Better late than never, right?

Fortunately I'd long since learned my lesson about knitting newborn sized things. That lesson, by the way, is don't. Teeny tiny newborn sized things are oh-so-adorable, but they'll also be oh-so-unwearable after about two weeks what with the way those little beings grow like weeds. Baby will get far more use out of a 12 month sized item than a newborn item. 

Do not be seduced by the adorableness of teeny tiny itty bitty!!

But I digress. Where was I?

Oh yes, 6 month old baby got the sweater, which happens to fit perfectly. Phew!

Pattern: Little Coffee Bean Cardigan Oh how I love this (free!) pattern. It's so well-written and versatile.

Yarn: Recycled from a thrifted merino/cashmere blend sweater. It was all originally blue, but the green stuff was dyed with food coloring (a remarkably satisfying experiment that I documented here)

Cost: 

Yarn: about $3.00

7 months of my time: about $47,040

Total: the most expensively awesome baby gift ever.