First Day Sweater

Trek Colourwork Sweater Pattern — Bodhi in her Trek sweater knit in Hello Stella yarn.

I think after the success of the September Sweaters we have established that I love a sweater with a title. I love making almost anything into ‘a tradition’, and in this case I gained another excuse to knit a sweater, as if I needed one, right?! So now I have knit Kindergarten Sweaters for each of my three kids. What’s a Kindergarten Sweater, you ask? Let me tell you!

An Intriguing Idea

Someone once told me they dressed their kid in the same type of outfit the first day of Kindergarten as the first day of Grade 12. This seemed like a fun idea to me but, as a knitter, I thought I should take it one step further and knit a sweater. I will, in theory, knit the same sweater for them to wear in for Grade 12. Wish me luck.

1999 Sweater Pattern — Hunter’s Kindergarten sweater was a 1999 in Rainbow Heirloom Sweater ‘princess rockstar’.

Bowline Sweater Pattern — For Jones I knit a Bowline sweater in yellow, his favourite colour. The yarn is Hedgehog Fibers DK in ‘pollen’, so it is a little off gauge.

When Lindsay of Hello Stella created the Van collection (which includes a donation to a good cause) I knew it was the PERFECT palette for a Kindergarten sweater. I have wanted to knit the Trek sweater since Emily first designed it, so away I went!

I love this warm palette and the tweedy quality of those black neps.

An Adjustment for Gauge

Since the Trek sweater pattern is written for DK weight yarn and the Van collection yarns are sock weight, I used the stitch counts from the adult size XS, but customized the lengths for Bodhi. Part way through the yoke I panicked, worried it was going to be too deep, so for the middle ‘box’ section I used the smaller chart. I worried for nothing, it fits the way I did it, but those few extra rounds just following the pattern would have been just fine too.

Check out our tutorial about knitting a garment at a different gauge for tips on how to make this sort of an adjustment.

Bodhi is my third kid and she has been WAITING for her chance to go to school with the big kids since Hunter’s first day of school. She is so ready for this!