Who would have thought that planning a child’s wardrobe would have so many tricky corners? Isabelle hates to wear warm clothes, so I have been planning for months to make her a cardi and a poncho this winter. Every time she sees me knitting something new she says “Is it a Card? Is it for me?”. Well actually after all those bags she has started asking “Is it a bag? Is it for me?”, but I digress. She is very interested in my knitting and always hopes that the end product is intended for her. Thus I am hoping that a cardi (”Card” as she likes to call it) and a poncho hand knit just for her will be exciting enough to wear. This plan certainly worked with the quilt, she now demands “covers” at night, so much so that once she was asleep last night I had to pull the leading edge down about a foot and a half to uncover her head, which was well buried.

The complicating factor in this cardi/poncho plan is making sure that both knits get worn. I suspect she will like the poncho more, both because I stupidly bought green yarn for the cardi and because I believe her objection to warm clothing (other than running hotter than the rest of us) is feeling restricted. Despite my instinct that it will be the favourite, and the general way of the world that a “favourite” once obtained will never be relinquished*, after much consideration I have decided to knit the poncho first. There is logic here, I swear. You see in most aspects of her life Isabelle has very distinct preferences but no lasting favourites (she has no favourite toy for example, no lovie) but she LOVES new clothes. her favourite dress is always her newest dress. I am thinking that if I give her the poncho first she will get into the idea of how great hand knits are and then if the cardi is presented second its newness might win it a place in her heart… Am I crazy? Here is the poncho by the way:

And people, all that analyzing, angst and hand wringing happened before I had to choose the damn yarn! The pattern calls for Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted, which comes in oh so many lovely colourways. Cara made her gorgeous poncho for Charlotte** from Artful Yarns Jazz. Then I had a bit of a look at Art Yarns Supermerino and fell instantly in love. And only after all that looking (and lusting) did I do some math. None of those yarns are available in Australia and I just can’t bring myself to spend $70 on yarn for a toddler’s poncho which may be rejected out of hand, destroyed if it is actually worn and then no doubt lost two weeks being deemed “acceptable apparel”.***

And so the local yarn shopping odyssey began. Not many choices and fewer still worth a second look. Worsted weight****, washable, natural fibers that come in colours suitable for a little girl are apparently hard to come by round here. And if you can find them, they come only in solid baby pink - would you like clearly visible stains with that? I nearly bought this but in the end I caved and bought something we can both love. It isn’t worsted weight, or machine washable, but it is lovely and marks will be far less obvious than on a sea of solid pink.

I can’t wait to finish Carla!

*My family will never let me forget the (apparently hideous) green poncho I had at Isabelle’s age - which I loved so much that I would not agree to have removed even for washing thus rendering it both hideous AND dirty.

**It was Charlotte’s poncho that made me choose this pattern, couldn’t resist the hood.

***I also can’t bear to wait long enough for the yarn to arrive from the US given international postal delays which will no doubt be extended by the imminent Easter break. Speaking of waiting for things, I was desperate to get my hands on the pattern and when I called < ahref="http://www.kaleidoscopeyarns.com/" target="_new">Kaleidoscope Yarns this morning they were kind enough to fax me a copy of the pattern before posting it, now that’s service.

****Perhaps part of the problem is that we have our own special ways of describing yarn and now of the weights seem to quite match up with US weights.