Bathrobe
About a week ago, Julian asked me for a bathrobe.
Julian hates to wear clothes and I think it finally occurred to him that a bathrobe was not technically clothing and would help keep him warm. Or, maybe, he wanted to be like me. Just before Christmas, I found a red cashmere bathrobe at the Salvation Army. It is pretty fabulous and I wear it every single morning. Sometimes, I wear it even after I have showered and dressed.
So, at first, I had planned to just make him a robe out of some flannel. Then, on Friday, I ran across Suss Cousins book, Home Knits, and saw her pattern for a knit bathrobe. I remembered I had this yarn in my stash (the sweater from which this yarn came was dumpster dived and I ripped it up). I showed the yarn to Julian and asked if he would like a bathrobe made out of it. He said yes.
I started knitting Saturday.
Sunday morning, he saw my bathrobe at the foot of our bed and asked, "Mommy, is that the bathrobe you made for me?" I had to tell him that, no, that was my robe, his was orange and I was still making it.
On Monday, he asked me where his bathrobe was. I told him I still had to sew the pieces together.
On Tuesday, he asked if he could put on his new robe. I told him it wasn't ready (I still had to do some blocking and sewing.)
On Wednesday morning, he didn't ask about the robe and refused to try it on when I showed it to him.
So, the lesson to be learned here is that while one must ask a toddler if he likes the yarn before the process begins (because you really don't want to go to the effort of knitting up a piece only to find out the child hates it after all that work) one must either be more secretive about the project and/or learn to knit faster.
Julian eventually agreed to try it on and even model it for me.
Of course, I made changes in the pattern. I didn't use the yarn she recommended, didn't have the right gauge, and knit it more by the measurements than by the pattern. I made changes to the collar. I grafted the shoulder seams instead of sewing them (something I plan to do all the time now--achieving an almost invisible seam and using less yarn? Why don't people recommend this all the time? Would it be wrong to tear up sweaters I made a decade ago in order to graft the shoulder seams?--I tried to take pictures, but they just look like plain stockinette stitch, not like seams at all!) I ran out of yarn and didn't do the crocheting at the hem.
I made it on the large size (using the measurements for the size 4, although Julian would probably have found the size 2 a bit big, as it turns out) because I am hoping Julian can wear it next winter and I really hope we are done with the unspeakably cold weather.
This pattern makes me so excited, I think I may have to knit a few more of these for the other toddlers I know. Maybe.
Julian hates to wear clothes and I think it finally occurred to him that a bathrobe was not technically clothing and would help keep him warm. Or, maybe, he wanted to be like me. Just before Christmas, I found a red cashmere bathrobe at the Salvation Army. It is pretty fabulous and I wear it every single morning. Sometimes, I wear it even after I have showered and dressed.
So, at first, I had planned to just make him a robe out of some flannel. Then, on Friday, I ran across Suss Cousins book, Home Knits, and saw her pattern for a knit bathrobe. I remembered I had this yarn in my stash (the sweater from which this yarn came was dumpster dived and I ripped it up). I showed the yarn to Julian and asked if he would like a bathrobe made out of it. He said yes.I started knitting Saturday.
Sunday morning, he saw my bathrobe at the foot of our bed and asked, "Mommy, is that the bathrobe you made for me?" I had to tell him that, no, that was my robe, his was orange and I was still making it.
On Monday, he asked me where his bathrobe was. I told him I still had to sew the pieces together.
On Tuesday, he asked if he could put on his new robe. I told him it wasn't ready (I still had to do some blocking and sewing.)
On Wednesday morning, he didn't ask about the robe and refused to try it on when I showed it to him.So, the lesson to be learned here is that while one must ask a toddler if he likes the yarn before the process begins (because you really don't want to go to the effort of knitting up a piece only to find out the child hates it after all that work) one must either be more secretive about the project and/or learn to knit faster.
Julian eventually agreed to try it on and even model it for me.
Of course, I made changes in the pattern. I didn't use the yarn she recommended, didn't have the right gauge, and knit it more by the measurements than by the pattern. I made changes to the collar. I grafted the shoulder seams instead of sewing them (something I plan to do all the time now--achieving an almost invisible seam and using less yarn? Why don't people recommend this all the time? Would it be wrong to tear up sweaters I made a decade ago in order to graft the shoulder seams?--I tried to take pictures, but they just look like plain stockinette stitch, not like seams at all!) I ran out of yarn and didn't do the crocheting at the hem.I made it on the large size (using the measurements for the size 4, although Julian would probably have found the size 2 a bit big, as it turns out) because I am hoping Julian can wear it next winter and I really hope we are done with the unspeakably cold weather.
This pattern makes me so excited, I think I may have to knit a few more of these for the other toddlers I know. Maybe.
posted by alimum at 12:54 PM
3 Comments:
Oh my! I love it -- so wonderfully bright. Looks comfy.
so cool! my 4 year old is also a julian, and he also hates clothes. and i really, really want to learn to knit. (hence how i ended up here :-)anyway, just delurking to say cool robe :) (and hoping i figure out how to teach myself how to knit soon. though it's hard for some reason...)
Oh he balks now but when he needs to change a tire at night by the side of the expressway that Roadside Safety Yarn will win the day.
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