Baby Bear Sweater
01.20.19

Baby Bear Sweater

Baby sweaters are hands down the cutest possible thing you can knit. Not only are they adorable but they are usually a very fast knit as well. Thanks to their small size, I can usually knock out a baby sweater in under a week (depending on the size I’m making and yarn weight, of course.)

My family gained a new nephew last month and as soon as I received news of the pregnancy, I couldn’t wait to knit him something baby-sized to welcome his arrival. This teddy bear sweater pattern is such a perfect gift idea and as soon as I saw it, my mind was made up.

I figured I would make use of the many balls of leftover yarn I have in my stash so I took one that *seemed* like it was fingering weight (though I did not check or make a gauge swatch) and got to work. Even though I was making the smallest size, I quickly realized that the yarn was a heavier weight than I thought and the size was going to turn out much larger than intended. I changed course and decided I would make a pair of sweaters, letting the accidentally large sweater be for my niece, the new big sister, and then remaking an actually small version for the brand new baby. I used a cream colored yarn for the larger sweater and a light brown for the baby version, but both were held together with the same mohair and it ended up making the pair coordinate beautifully without being too matchy.

I simply adore the way these turned out and this is most certainly going to become my go-to baby gift option for years to come.

My Notes

Fit

From what I can tell and considering that these were made as gifts, these seem to fit their intended recipients pretty darn well. The basic design of this pattern makes it fairly easy to just eyeball length of body and sleeves as you go, but of course once the yoke is established there isn’t much adjustment to be done in regards to width. If you’re at all concerned, knit a gauge swatch to be sure it will fit as you intend.

Pattern and Difficulty

I find that many of Petite Knit’s patterns are a bit on the casual side as far as wording goes, which means that even when the construction is pretty simple as in these sweaters, they may be confusing for a relatively new knitter. This pattern assumes you know how and when to make raglan increases for the yoke, and is even more confusing because they don’t start and end with the beginning and end of a row.

For that reason, it might be a good idea to try this after having made another one or two raglan sweaters, or have a more experienced knitter available to help answer questions.

For the short rows used to shape the neck and shoulders, I used the German short row technique and was really pleased with the result.