Baby Jacket All-nighter

Phew! I was making a baby sweater for my best friend's baby shower, which was yesterday. I had limited time because of the holidays having just gotten over. And then I changed my mind about what I wanted to do several times, until I finally landed on using Omega Sinfonia and my own pattern. The Sinfonia is a lovely mercerized cotton yarn by Omega that is available at the Hobby Lobby in my area. It is a really lovely cotton yarn for a craft-store alternative to kitchen cotton or crochet cotton, which is about all the 100% cotton yarns available at my other local craft stores. I had used it to crochet with, but hadn't ever knitted it, and if I had, I'd have probably opted for the Cottontots for my rapidly approaching event, and made my planned Sinfonia sweater afterward. I got started with 2 days to go, and I naively thought after the first evening that since a couple hours had mostly completed the back, I could just finish it all up the next day. Wrong.

By two o'clock in the morning, I had finally finished both front sides, after mulling over the neck shaping for a little while. By around five-thirty, I'd finished both sleeves, had quick-blocked the body pieces and set the sleeves up to block. Seven o'clock saw me having just finished sewing up the shoulders, picked up and knit the collar and taken a break to drink some tea and shake my hands out. I only had two hours left if I wanted to get there in time, and had all the seaming to do, and I also had to get ready for the shower. I didn't finish in time. I packed the little darling up in a box along with a crochet hook, a yarn needle, some scissors and the buttons I'd chosen, and took it, ends hanging out and buttonless, to the shower, and I finished it up while we sat and chatted. *sigh*

The Sinfonia turs out a beautiful knitted project. And I've never really thought that knitting cotton was that tough. I'd never tried to speed-knit cotton before, and now I know better, and I humbly apologize for any less than charitable thought I've ever had when reading of someone else's struggles with cotton yarn. I'm pleased with my finished little baby jacket, with the seed stitch mandarin collar and cuff details. If I ever make another one, it will either be a year in advance, or in wool.