It's all blue!

Last week I had some stunning revelations about my nephew Ben :

1) His 2nd birthday is on the 28th November (hey, he's only new, we're still getting used to a new family birthday, in the midst of 30 other immediate family members)!

2) 28th November is the day of our final inspection on our old house (ugh).

3) My sister and her hubby and Ben will BE IN CANBERRA on the 28th (very rare, as they live in London - they're coming to Australia for our brother Ben's wedding on 1st Dec). Those of you paying attention will notice that there are TWO Bens in our family.

4) OMG I could knit him a jumper! My first toddler jumper in about 15 years!

5) But he probably has heaps of jumpers, being a bloody-freezing-London resident. Let's ask, shall we?

6) He doesn't, as they're really expensive! He only has one, which he's growing out of, and my sister was thrilled at the offer!

7) So I got to choose a new pattern! Sherwood off Knitty (I'd always loved it since seeing Olivia's rendition).

8) And I got to buy WOOL! 2 balls of Classic 8ply from Bendigo, my sister chose Aztec, a cool blue (as opposed to a warm blue, not that's it's HIP; well, it might be, but I don't know about such things ;) :

Here's the blocked swatch in pattern - I'm perfectly on gauge (w00t!), the chart for the cables all coloured in, and the first 6 or so rows (note incredibly cute koala and wombat stitch markers, thanks Secret Pal!). After a quick chat with Olivia about using a 100% wool instead of a cotton wool blend, I'm making Size 4 (even though Size 2 is a more exact fit with Ben's measurements). It's fast and fun! And perfect distraction from packing and other dramas...


And here's Lily asleep on my Mariah... perfect puppy pillow!


Edit for Amy (and others!) : the reasoning behind making the bigger size is that a cotton jumper will be heavier and pull downwards more when worn, while a wool one will be more springy and light, and sit 'shorter'. It also seemed that the Size 4 suited Olivia's 2 year old nephew well, and I also thought a bigger size would be better for little people who grow fast :) Julie has a good blog post about substituting yarns here, too.