Cooking up a Casserole Sweater

Yarn leftovers

You know how you just have to clean out the fridge every once in a while? I usually sort out the leftovers and use the good ones in some kind of tortilla casserole, layering everything with a bit of salsa, tortillas, and cheese. Sometimes we're surprised at how well they turn out. Sometimes not so much!

Inspired by the beautiful patterns in The Green Mountain Spinnery Knitting Book and thinking about those casseroles, I started gathering up all the leftover yarns from past Knit for Kids projects. The Green Mountain people use beautiful natural fibers; I've been using tough acrylics for these little kid sweaters, not knowing how they will be handled and washed. I still like the way the sweater is coming out, although blocking will make a big improvement.

This sweater started with a bit of a knitting adventure. After knitting a two-color ribbing and knitting a few inches of the body of the sweater, I really didn't like the looks of the ribbing. To avoid starting all over, I just cut it off stitch by stitch, picking up the body stitches as I went, and knit/purled a new ribbing from the top down. It felt pretty daring to me!

This is the wrong side of the sweater. Because it is essentially knit double, it will make some little kid nice and warm.

Knit for Kids Sweater Chart

When knitting sweaters using the Knit for Kids 10th Anniversary pattern, I ran into trouble a couple of times. There were no problems with the simple pattern itself, but I sometimes transposed numbers and occasionally ended up with some odd proportions, which meant ripping out some rows. So, I made a chart with large print and different font colors for each size for quick reference, to be used along with the complete directions. My copy is printed out and enclosed in a plastic page protector so I can keep it with my current project in my basket of yarn.

Please note that in the "Cast on" column, the "x 2" refers to the way I knit the pattern on round needles--for size 2, I cast on 61 x 2 (122) stitches with markers to separate the front and back, then knit round up to the yoke. Then half the stitches go on a stitch holder, and I add on and knit for the front yoke/sleeves per the original directions, and then repeat for the back yoke/sleeves. If you are knitting one side of the sweater at a time on straight needles, you should just cast on 61 stitches for size 2, 65 for size 4, etc.

To print out your own chart, click on the one below, enlarge it if you wish, and print. Remember, this is the 10th Anniversary pattern, not the basic pattern that Knit for Kids started out with. As they say, they "resized the traditional pattern to better fit slender children and added longer sleeves for greater warmth. The sweater now fits snugly at the bottom with a ribbing stitch."

Knit for Kids

Just in case anyone reading this happens to be a knitter (or would like to be), I want to tell you a little about Knit for Kids. This program, which supplies hand knit sweaters to children all over the U.S. and the world, is in its tenth year. Volunteer knitters send sweaters to the home office in Carmel, New York, where the sweaters are sorted and packed up to be sent wherever they are most needed. Sometimes they might be sent to an orphanage in Europe, or to American children who have a parent who is in prison. Sweaters have recently gone to southern Iraq, Liberia, and Madagascar. The website has a distribution map showing where sweaters have been sent. Over the past ten years, Knit for Kids has sent out over 400,000 sweaters. According to their website: "2006 smashed all previous records – 74,983 sweaters were received, an amazing 11,729 in December alone."


You don't have to be a fancy knitter. Knitting beginners can use the basic and very simple knitting patterns that are supplied on the website, and very clear instructions are given for finishing the sweaters. You don't need to use expensive yarns--these sweaters are to keep kids warm and need to be washable and pretty sturdy.
Just in case you think you don't have time to work on a project like this, consider this. There are times every day when you might have a minute or two--riding on a train, sitting in a meeting, even working out on your exercise bike! I found out about the program a year and a half ago while chatting with a friend during a Town Meeting break, and since that time I have knit 23 sweaters--some of them are shown here. I knit while watching the Red Sox, while listening to books on tape, while riding in the car. I've found all sorts moments when my hands would otherwise be idle.


Please check out the Knit for Kids website at http://www.knitforkids.com/. You can read stories about volunteer knitters, download a pattern, and see some great pictures of kids wearing their new sweaters. Thank you.