My friend Leslie says that as far as baby apparel goes, the baby sack is it. Zipper for easy access, no pantslegs to worry about, unisex. . . Next best thing to leaving 'em nekkid.
Thus, when Leslie found herself in a family way again, I set out to make her a baby sack. The only pattern I could lay hands on called for fingering weight yarn. Uh, right. For one thing, fingering weight yarn is impossible to find, and for another, the gauge is 33 sts by 58 rows = 4"X4"! Yeah, I'm going to spend 800 (wo)man-hours knitting up a thing for a kid to throw up on and outgrow in six months. So I bought some bulky weight, fluffy yarn and used the basic proportions of the fingering-weight pattern to kludge together the pattern below.
The yarn I used was Red Heart Baby Clouds, and my overall verdict is a thumbs up. It's not as good as the higher quality fluffy yarns, but it's Red Heart, so it's dirt cheap. It didn't divide too easily so it was fairly nice to work with--I only rarely stick a needle through the yarn. The fuzziness makes it very forgiving; a little mistake here or there gets lost in the fur, and ends work in more-or-less invisibly. Plus, through the magic of bulky yarn, the second-career baby gift became a 2-weekend project. Yay!
Baby Clouds only comes in dumb ol' baby pastels, of course, but what do you expect? My biggest complaint is that it claims to be "NO DYE LOT." This is a BIG FAT LIE. The two different skeins I got were of noticably different color and texture. Caveat emptor. There's still some kind of numerical code on the label under the "NO DYE LOT" stamp, so I think you can match up dye lots--and I strongly recommend that you do! This pattern took 2 skeins of multicolor, but that was cutting it close. On the other hand, it's really freakishly long. You could probably leave off about 4 inches at the bottom--just remember to get a shorter zipper.
This pattern was designed with laziness in mind. I minimized the amount of sewing by working the whole body in one piece, instead of a front right, front left, and two sleeves as in the original pattern. Also, I hate picking up lots of stitches. That's why the seed stitch is really cool; it provides a nice stable edge, and IMHO with the fuzzy yarn the edge looks fine without adding ribbing. In fact, the ribbing on the cuffs came out looking pretty lame; it's hard to tell that it really is ribbing because it's so furry.
I think the seed stitch also shows off the fuzzy yarn well; it's almost a poor man's popcorn stitch.
One more note: my gauge is crazy-big. The label on the yarn suggests size 15 needles for the same gauge I got with size 12. Your mileage will almost certainly vary, so check your gauge.
BABY SACK (Updated Oct 22, 2003). Final measurements: 24 inches long (excluding hood), 6 inch long sleeves. Materials: * 9 oz. Red Heart Baby Clouds yarn (bulky weight) * 22 inch zipper * Size 12 needles and size 10 needles (or size needed for gauge) * Tapestry needle * Matching, non-fuzzy yarn (if desired) for sewing * Sewing needle & thread GAUGE: 10 sts X 12 rows = 4 X 4 inches DIRECTIONS: BACK: With larger needles, cast on 28 sts. Work in seed stich (Row 1: *K1, P1*, Row 2: *P1 K1*) until work measures 19 1/2 in. At the end of the row, cast on 12 sts for sleeve (40 sts). At the end of the next row, cast on 12 sts for opposite sleeve(52 sts). Work in pattern until sleeves measure 4 1/2 in., body is 24 in. Do not cast off! Continue to instructions for the front. FRONT: Work 22 sts in pat, cast off 8 sts. Slip completed sts onto stitch holder, then complete row (22 sts). Work 4 rows in pattern. At beginning of next row (at neck), inc 1 (knit into front and back of stitch) (23 sts). *Work 1 row in pat. Repeat increase row* twice (25 sts). Work in pattern until sleeve measures 9 in. On a row that begins at the cuff, cast off 12 sts (13 sts.) Cont. in pattern until front measures 24 inches from neck bind-off, and cast off. Slide stitches from holder onto needle, and begin working from neck edge to repeat FRONT for opposite side. HOOD: With smaller needles, cast on 33. Work *K1 P1* ribbing for 1 inch. Switch to larger needles, and continue in pat:. For next 7 rows, dec 1 stitch at beginning of row. (26 sts) Work 4 rows. Bind off 3 sts at the beginning of the next 3 rows. (17 sts) Cast off. FINISHING: [You may wish to sew with a matching, non-fuzzy yarn.] Sew along bottoms of sleeves, sides of body, and across bottom, leaving approx. 1 in. gap for zipper. Fold hood in half, and sew halfway down the back (that is, sew together the two halves of the cast-off edge). Sew hood to body. Set in zipper using sewing thread and needle. Copyright 2002-2003 Britt Scharringhausen. You may reproduce for your own personal use a long as this notice is attached; not for commercial distribution. Contact me at brs@astro.cornell.edu if you have any questions.