Can't Catch Me!

I'm currently taking a bit of a hiatus from design work while my daughter is small, but there are still a couple of things I designed before she arrived that are still to be released. I've been designing for about two years now, and have had several designs published in Knit Now magazine, but I still find it ridiculously exciting to see my new designs in print. So I was delighted on Monday when the latest issue (issue 40, on sale from Thursday 16th October 2014) fell through the letterbox and I spotted my Can't Catch Me! children's jumper within its pages.

Image copyright Practical Publishing

Can't Catch Me! is one of my favourite types of knit: a children's picture jumper. I used to knit them for my sister when I was a teenager (I find all the colour changes keep my attention and stop me getting bored, and the child-size scale makes the project pretty speedy to knit), and am loving their current revival. Can't Catch Me! is a festive jumper, inspired by a toy I bought my son for Christmas last year. The gingerbread man is actually a bath toy, but my son takes him to bed frequently, and I find him adorable; he definitely didn't get put away once Christmas was over!

I really enjoyed designing and knitting this one, even if I did feel a little silly doing Christmas knitting in May. I made life a little easier for myself by knitting just the ginger bit of the gingerbread man into the jumper, then added the buttons, bow tie and eyes at the end using Swiss darning (duplicate stitch), which saved a few ends being darned in. The yarn it's knitted in (Wendy Merino DK) feels nice and wooly to knit with, then softens up beautifully when washed. It is machine washable, with care (I made the mistake of washing one piece at 40 °C on a standard cycle and it did shed a bit), and the colours have very subtle colour variation within them. I'll definitely be using the yarn again.

The sample is still with Knit Now (they keep them until the rights for the pattern return to me) so it won't be worn this Christmas, but hopefully it should fit my daughter in a few years time. She'll be wearing it even if the current trend for picture jumpers has passed. What kid doesn't look cute in a picture jumper?!