Grace's Third Birthday Sweater

It has become something of a tradition for Grace to receive a sweater from me on her birthday. A tradition I joyously participate in each year, and one that she seems to really enjoy. This is not to say that she doesn't get other knitted gifts from me each year, because she does. She has such a pure joy for the things I knit her, and a keen interest in learning to knit. This interest, plus her sweet smile when she opens something new makes me want to knit only for Grace...but I don't want to spoil her quite that much. Yet.
Last weekend we celebrated her third birthday with her (it is actually this Saturday, but my husband and I are both in a wedding, so we can't attend the party.) She got the complete Madeline stories, and the sweater I knit her this year. Oh, and a Disney Princess card that sang a song from Cinderella ("Cinella" in Grace-speak) when it opened. I think that may have been her favorite part.

Here she is listening to the music for the third or fourth time....whenever it would stop she would get a frustrated expression on her face and I'd have to close it and open it for her again.

Here she is flipping through Madeline with me. I read it to her in a French accent, which she seems to love because she stares at me instead of the book.

Here is the moment of unveiling for the sweater. She looked at it for a moment and then picked up the card again. I wasn't offended.

Pattern: My own, striped raglan pullover
Yarn: Dale of Norway, Baby Ull
Needles: #6 Addi Turbos
Notes: This sweater wasn't a pattern as much as it was a formula. I measured Grace very well, and left small allowances for her wearing it with things underneath, and of course for growth. Then I decided what elements I wanted and came up with garter borders, stripes, a split neck in the back with buttons and a boat neck. I knew I wanted the pink stripes to be secondary to the green base color, and so they got 6 rows each, while the green stripes were 10 rows.
She seems quite pleased with it, wore it to school this morning in fact, and that's good enough for me. I am very happy with the fit, and think I will do raglan sweaters for her birthday more often.