The Wonderful Wallaby

Last week my son innocently said he was buying an American Girl doll for our granddaughter for Christmas and thought it would be nice if Myna (a 2 year-old's version of Grandma which stuck through 2 additional siblings) knit matching sweaters for our granddaughter and the doll. My first reaction was, I've got other things I'd rather knit, but before long I was looking for patterns. It had to meet certain criteria: seamless garment with little finishing and something knit on needles larger than 3 or 4. My thoughts always came back to my favorite sweater pattern, The Wonderful Wallaby by Cottage Creations, but that presented a challenge which I rather like-there was no pattern for the doll, so I'm going to work on that. Here's the progress so far.

It is knit with my favorite yarn for children-Encore-because it wears well and is washable and size 8 needles. As a single father with primary custody of 3 children, I can't see my son hand washing any sweaters.

As maybe you can see from the picture, the sweater is knit in the round to the underarm. The pocket is picked up just after the ribbing, knit, then attached to the sweater with a 3-needle fusing-similar to 3-needle bind off.

This pattern is so versatile as it is written for all sizes from children's size 2 to adults supersize which is to fit a 48" chest. I've made it for children of all ages and for a son-in-law and I have one too which I love. If your LYS doesn't carry the pattern, send a large stamped, self addressed envelope for a pattern list to "Cottage Creations, At the Farm on Deer Creek, Carpenter, Iowa 50426-0070."