Look! No Pattern!

 

I am nurturing, ever so softly and tentatively, a quiet desire to design my own knits. A few things stand in my way. There's so little time and so many other wonderful things I want to knit, it's hard to spend precious hours on potential failures. But more importantly, as far as design goes, I really haven't a clue.

So for a first effort, I'm pretty pleased with this little experiment in going pattern-free. It's plain, plain, plain, garter stitch all the way, with zero embellishments. But in terms of shape and fit, it's spot-on for this little girl and exactly what I had in mind - a tiny torso-warmer to see out the last weeks of winter.

I used some stashed yarn - Harmony 10ply by Naturally. It's 100% New Zealand merino and has a lovely almost felty texture. This little vest used about half a skein.

Oh, and I've finally been getting some time at the sewing machine in the past week. These little corduroy pants were a bit of a failure, however - far too short in the leg and the waist, despite adding the extra length given as an 'option' in the pattern. I ended up adding a thick lace ribbon to the cuffs so they wouldn't look completely like half-mast clown pants. 

Stella likes them, though. They match her red shoes. Or "soozh", as she calls them.