Wonderful Wallaby

 One of my sister's friends showed me a finished Wonderful Wallaby in early June, and I knew I had to make one. It is a seamless sweater, but does require some interesting maneuvers; thus, the difficulty level of "Early Intermediate."

As directed by the pattern, I knit the cuffs and bottom ribbing on a 24-inch, size 6 needle and the remainder of the sweater on a 24-inch, size 8 circular. The sleeves were knit in the round on two 16-inch, size 6 (cuffs) and size 8 needles, but double-points could be used. During the yoke decreases, I switched to a 16-inch, size 8 needle.

 The pouch has an interesting construction, picking up stitches just above the bottom ribbing and knitting on a separate needle and then a three-needle bind-off to connect it to the body of the sweater.

 The hood requires grafting with the Kitchner stitch. I use the technique all the time for grafting sock toes that are knit with stockinette stitch, but I had to practice the Kitchner for the hood's garter stitch edge.

Kitchner is also used to graft six stitches at the bottom of the sleeve to six stitches on the sweater body.

The Wonderful Wallaby that I knit is a size 2, and it required 8.5 ounces of Plymouth Encore, given to me by Rena. The sweater will be donated to Wool-Aid.

The pattern includes sizes 2 - 12 in a booklet form. In places, the wording in the pattern is a bit confusing, but after some trial and error, I was able to decipher what was meant. A second sweater will be much easier to knit.