I’ve wanted to knit a cute little cable sweater for my niece for a while now. In this post, I’ll share my experience modifying the Honeycomb Aran sweater to fit a toddler, and knitting another Pengweeno sweater for her — this time in rainbow!
KNITTING FOR MY NIECE
I love knitting for my niece. She is so sweet and appreciative of the things I make for her. I love making all sorts of fun projects for her — from stuffed animals to sweaters. She’s interested in knitting too and I can’t wait until she’s a little older and we can knit together!
Here’s a look back at all the things I’ve knit for my niece:
- Rainbow Meadowland Baby Afhgan
- Mini Flax Sweater
- Window Kitty
- Magnolia Little Cardigan
- Moonbeam Sweater
- Luna Cat
- Pengweeno
- Rainbow Mashup Sweater
- Starlight Moonglow Unicorn
- Rainbow Mini Shoulder Bag
MINI HONEYCOMB ARAN
I love the Honeycomb Aran sweater; I think it’s such a classic look. I wanted to try to modify the pattern to fit my niece so we could match! This ended up being a lot trickier than I thought it’d be.
PLANNING
I started out comparing my niece’s measurements to the XS size of the Honeycomb Aran. I figured I needed to make her sweater 62% of the XS size to give her a good fit. I went through the Honeycomb Aran pattern and calculated 62% of each of the XS stitch counts. I made a few adjustments here and there for symmetry.
Once I had a general idea of the stitch counts required, I needed to create a cable pattern that would fit. I used the original patterns in the Honeycomb Aran to come up with a modified mini cable pattern to accommodate the reduced stitch count. I wrote up all my notes and started looking for some yarn.
YARN – MINI HONEYCOMB ARAN
I wanted a vibrant and durable yarn for my niece’s sweater. She really likes blue and I found this teal color I thought she would like.
This is the Tranquil color in Knit Picks Brava Worsted; it’s pretty and affordable.
MINI HONEYCOMB ARAN – KNITTING EXPERIENCE
I cast on with US 4 needles on a 30″ cable, knitting a twisted rib for 2 inches. I switched to US 6 needles for the body’s cable pattern. I liked how my pattern was working up and the stitch definition from the yarn. Things were going pretty well until I neared the end of the raglan shaping. My center cable pattern was getting interrupted by the raglan decreases so I ended my raglan shaping early.
That’s when I knew this sweater wasn’t going to be very easy for me. I continued on and started the front panel. My gauge was a lot more relaxed with the front panel and I liked the drape of the fabric a little more. I was getting frustrated with this sweater and ended up messing up the cable pattern. I didn’t realize my mistake for a few rows, so I had to drop down pretty far to fix it.
By that point, I was ready for this sweater to be over. When I got to the neck shaping of the front panel, I was having similar issues with the center cable panel becoming messed up. I finished the front panel and started thinking about the sleeves.
Now that I could really see how the body was coming together, I realized that the sleeves would be difficult for me. I decided, instead, to seam the front and back together and figure out the sleeve situation after.
I seamed the body and picked up stitches along the neckline to knit the collar. I knit a long collar, used Jenny’s surprisingly stretchy bind off, folded it over, and seamed it in half.
All of the sudden, this sweater looked like a pet sweater and I wasn’t sure how I could save it and add sleeves. I thought about just ending the sweater and not giving it to my niece at all. Instead, I just used the rest of my yarn to do a few rows of seed stitch for the sleeves.
I think it turned out ok. Obviously not my best work. But for basically creating this version on my own, it could have been worse. My main goal was to finish it before the Westknits MKAL and I did accomplish that. In fact, I finished/ended so early that I decided to make another sweater for my niece!
RAINBOW PENGWEENO
I knit the Pengweeno for my niece before and I thought it would be fun to make her another one. I needed an interesting but familiar knit to shake off my Honeycomb Aran experience.
YARN – PENGWEENO
My niece told me her second favorite color is rainbow, so I knew I could make her something she would love. I too love rainbow and I already had this little set of rainbow yarn from the unicorn project.
RAINBOW PENGWEENO – KNITTING EXPERIENCE
I cast on the back panel in a striped rainbow, switching colors whenever I was ready for a change. I knit the Kiddo 1 size with US 6 needles.
This panel reminded me of the rainbow Penguono I made for myself last year, and I was excited to be working this familiar pattern again.
I decided to keep some symmetry with this Pengweeno. Since I was knitting with solid DK yarn and not marling two fingering weight strands, my colors are very strong and striped.
I leaned into the stripes and emphasized the rainbow along the front panels as well. I was really surprised how much I was able to knit with this set of yarn. The colors are super vibrant and it was easy to work with, but the feel is very stiff/crunchy.
I used black to kind of anchor the rainbow and I love the contrast. The underarm panels and the shoulder patches are black.
I continued the front panel’s rainbow stripes onto the sleeves, using my ChiaoGoo shorties for the sleeves as the circumference started to get smaller. I ended the sleeves one repeat early and bound off loosely in a yellow.
I knit the short row shawl collar in rainbow stripes and I love how it turned out. It’s like a rainbow explosion.
I ran out of black yarn while knitting the alternating stripes in the hem border, and decided to end it early instead of starting a new color pattern. The Pengweeno is very boxy and is pretty forgiving in terms of size, especially for a toddler.
I had to break into a skein of yarn for another project so that I could work the final I-cord. I didn’t think I had enough of any of the other colors to get through the entire way.
I’m really happy with how this Rainbow Pengweeno turned out. I finished it in 10 days and was still done before the Westknits MKAL. Knitting for a toddler goes by quickly, especially when it’s my only WIP.
NEXT PROJECT – KNITTING FOR MY NIECE
Since my modified mini Honeycomb Aran was pretty much a fail, I started looking for an actual cable sweater pattern for children. I found the Moby Sweater Mini by Petite Knit that looked perfect.
I just got the most beautiful pink yarn from Hedgehog Fibres and I’ve already knit a gauge swatch and cast on. I really want this sweater to be perfect and I’m looking forward to knitting with an actual pattern.
Check out my Ravelry page to follow my knitting progress and see my recent finished projects!
