Last Minute Knitted Gifts: Baby Pants

I've been knitting for a long time, and I've made a lot of different things, but I've never been terribly interested in making a pair of knitted baby pants. I guess I always thought that sewing them would be so much easier, so why not leave the knitting for something that sewing just couldn't beat—like a sweater?

Well, all that changed recently. I fell in love with the pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts (and, as a side note, the soakers from Vintage Baby Knits—but that's another post), and decided to give them a shot.

The pattern is written for denim yarn, but there are notes for those of you who, like me, couldn't possibly choose the same yarn as the designer (why make things easy?). I went with lovely mustard yellow cotton (Cottontail by Reynolds Kids), which translated without a single math equation.

The instructions are very well-written and super easy to follow, and I did—mostly. The changes I made were mostly born of mama-knowledge.

My first alternation was to add a panel in back to accommodate a cloth diaper (no trim little hineys in this house!). Instead of knitting the back straight up to the waistband, as the pattern calls, I increased one stitch on each side of the crotch (so, instead of knitting the five stitches that were the cast off crotch, I knit seven—one on each side of the original five—on the first round) until I was half way up the back (in this case, 3") then I decreased one stitch on each side until I got back to the original number of stitches. This created a popped-out diamond shape where the diaper will be.

My second alteration was at the waistband. Instead of a drawstring (it's kinda a bummer to try to tie a bow on the pants of a six-month-old that stays tied but doesn't cut off the circulation), I used elastic. In order to get it in with the fewest tears and curse words, I put it in place while the waistband was still unfinished (finishing meant folding it in half and sewing the cast-off edge in place). Then, just before sewing up the last couple stitches, I cinched up the elastic, and sewed it into a loop.

 

I love the way these cute little pants turned out! So much so, in fact, that I've already bought bamboo (Sidar Snuggly Baby Bamboo) for another pair.

 

 

Well, here's to trying new things!

Happy knitting everyone!