One of my customer friends was making this adorable romper for her grandchild-to-be and needed some help on the lace work on the front of the garment. Some of the chart/stitch patterns were unfamiliar. We worked through the “issue”, figured it out and then I figured that I had to knit it for my little Sylvie.
The Jasmine Romper by Maria Atencia comes in sizes newborn through twelve months. The front is a lace pattern with bobbles and the back is a simple stockinette with garter stitch edges around the legs and at the top. It requires five buttons and is knitted in a sport-weight yarn on US 4 needles for most of the pattern. I chose Universal’s Bamboo Pop, a DK weight cotton and bamboo blend. It’s machine washable/dry flat.
I’m knitting the 6-9 months size for Sylvie. She’s a peanut. The size that I chose to knit had some minor inconsistencies between the written and charted pattern but the designer was quick to respond and has updated the pattern. So, after a couple of false starts (I always think it’s me who has the problem the first time … or two) the knitting began.
The front of the romper is a fun lace pattern with bobbles. I have been using the KnitCompanion app but you could print it out and use a chart minder. I have positive feelings about both but am loving the Knit Companion app and I am saving paper and ink by not printing my patterns. Regardless, the front is difficult to count rows on because of the patterning but it’s not impossible. Life will be so much easier if you mark your progress. Decades of experience have taught me this. I also use stitch markers to help me. That’s why we have them, right? I used stitch markers to mark the garter stitch edges and to mark the lace pattern at the center of the garment’s front.
There are a lot of ways to make bobbles and this pattern asks you to knit and purl into the stitch for a total of four stitches or three increased and then you yarn over and cast off the four stitches just knit. This makes a bobble that’s not particularly pronounced and that remains a little bit open at the bottom. For this garment, it seems like a good option. But I want to remember to return to my notes from a workshop I took with Annie Modisette in Florida many moons ago because I loved her bobble technique. When I get around to that, I’ll write a post on bobbles.
Anyway … the front is now complete and I’m working my way up the back. The back is simple stockinette stitch with garter edges in all the same areas at the front. If I’d continued working on it yesterday, it would have been finished and ready for blocking and seaming today. But I didn’t. So, I hope I’ll finish it today and get it blocked so I can seam it and send it on to NYC before my daughter and her family head to California in May. I hope Sylvie can wear this outfit this summer. We’ll see how it fits.
It seems that the back is a little fuller than the front and that may be to accommodate a diaper. Once finished and blocked, I think it will be telling. I love the yarn – Universal Yarn’s Bamboo Pop. It’s a blend of cotton and bamboo so it’s a sturdy yarn but like a lot of cotton or linen it doesn’t hurt my hands to knit with it. I also have had no problem with splitting. I love the pure white, too.
I can hardly wait to see this on her little body. With a little bit of a tan on those chunky thighs? Ha Ha! Gone knitting.
Queen Bee Knits 