Flight of the Bumblebee

In my secret heart of hearts, Bernard is still my dress-up doll of a baby, and I confess that I would rather shop for clothes for him than for myself. The changing seasons and the growth spurts make me very happy indeed. But all is not well, because the clothes I can afford are not to my satisfaction, and we are away the weekend of the NCT nearly new sale (and anyway, he’s at an age where boys’ clothes don’t last long enough to make it into the sale).

The worst of it is that it is not possible to buy t-shirts for male toddlers without labelling him as a brat who always gets his own way, or a devotee of some TV programme that I’ve never heard of. Nor could I find the perfect tank top. And then I remembered my drawer full of knitting needles and random balls of yarn, and found myself a very easy pattern for a tank top.

I figured out that worsted weight meant aran, and ordered some Debbie Bliss donegal tweed in fetching shades of yellow and grey, which turned out to be purple when it arrived. I then translated no.10 needles to mean 3.25mm, and set to work. But it puzzled me, because this for a start seemed a bit odd as the yarn is very chunky for such slim needles. The pattern said 3.5 stitches = 1″ over garter stitch. But did it bollocks. I was getting 5 stitches = 1″, but that’s after I switched to 5mm needles (as recommended on the yarn label). Even then, casting on 44 stitches (the sizing given for a 4 year old) makes a hem nowhere near wide enough to go halfway round Bernard, who is a fairly average-sized two year old. I called for help.

Some good ladies who knit pointed out that the main thing I was doing wrong was trying to convert from imperial to metric instead of american to metric, which meant that I had to start all over again on 6mm needles. I knitted a square and measured it against one of Bernard’s jumpers, and figured out that I needed 42 stitches to make something that size. I added on a couple of stitches for good measure and looked at the pattern again. 44 stitches! That’s what it says! The pattern is right!! How can this be?

So I diligently knitted the back, and then had another panic at the idea of a three-needle bind off, but the good ladies put me straight on that one, too, and in the end it all worked out. And here he is, in all his finery.

Bernard and the bumblebee