Finished item: Santa Cruz Hoodie

Really love this little top – although it’s not as little as it maybe should be. I’m feeling quite nervous as it’s currently in the washing machine...I ummed and arred about hand washing it initially but decided that since it’s 100% acrylic and machine washable, maybe I should just go for it. I’m hoping this smoothes out some of the stitching as there’s a section on the back of the hood where I made a mistake that is a little loose now, and the grafting along the top of the hood isn’t completely invisible.



I made a few changes to the pattern, which I’ve mentioned on my Ravelry project page. I need to think about the balance between this blog and my Ravelry pages, I’m never quite sure where to put what!

The main thing I did was use a substitute yarn which gave me a smaller gauge. To avoid writing the pattern totally, I (and my Dad) worked out that stitch-wise, although I was aiming for the 6yr old size, I could follow the stitch count/instructions for the small adult size. The pattern handily included detailed pictures of the individual pieces and their dimensions. This meant that I could knit to the right lengths for the smaller size. I know, it all sounds very risky, but it seems to have worked out – I was nervous when I got to the raglan seams, as I hadn’t really taken those into consideration!

Other things I did include knitting the moss stitch cuffs in the round to avoid the need for a seam, which means they can be worn down, or folded back. The rest of the sleeve was knit flat.

I also did the hood a little differently. The pattern indicated knitting the hood minus the moss stitch ending, then picking up around the edge and adding it last. I didn’t fancy doing that, so I just knit the hood complete with edge. As the top of the hood is grafted to avoid a seam, it meant I had to graft moss stitch! I tried not to think about that bit until I needed to. When I did get up to it, I googled but nothing jumped out. I eventually remembered how to cheat graft!! This involved knitting an extra row or two in a contrasting yarn, then doing the graft with the live yarn, following the lead of the contrasting yarn. I started by doing two rows in contrasting yarn, but I found it a bit confusing, so I pulled out one row and that made it better to see what I was doing. I made the graft, then pulled out the contrasting yarn. All worked out well! I’m sure it’s the only way to go about grafting moss stitch.



I’m fairly sure the top is going to be a little big for my nephew, but he’ll grow into it...I just hope he doesn’t need to grow into a new shape!!

ETA: It came out of the wash looking the same size (yey/phew) and far more lovely, soft and fluffy. The stitches have evened out a little, but my tention on the graft was obviously a bit tight (still doesn't look too bad though). I really love it. It's so soft I just want to snuggle my face into it!