Finished: Latte Baby Coat

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Way back in November last year, I was lucky enough to be gifted the Latte Baby Coat pattern by a very generous Raveler. I had my eye on this pattern for a while, and was wanting to make a coat for my gorgeous boy this winter (June, July, August for us down here!). I started off quickly, especially considering it was my first real attempt at a proper knitting pattern (rather than a garter stitch scarf or some basic practice squares).

I finished the body part quickly, made with Patons Inca chunky yarn and 6mm needles, it just flew by. I thought I had enough yarn, I had calculated how much was in a ball of Inca, and worked out how many balls I needed to buy to match the yarn estimate, but I should have added another ball.

I fell short before starting the basket stitch band. So into hibernation it went until I bought another ball. After waiting too long to buy a matching one, I couldn't find the yarn I needed to complete it. Tried all of my LYSs and jumped on the yarn stashes on Ravelry to see if I could find it. But NO ONE had my colourway!!! The closest I could find was the same colours, but instead of variegated, it was marled. Which would have hidden the basket stitch band.

So I went in the other direction. Instead of using a marled version of the same colourway, I picked the lightest colour and bought a ball of solid cream.

I actually really like how it turned out with the plain cream band, and I am glad I ran out of the main colourway! I think that the variegation would have hidden the woven stitches and would have detracted from the visual effect that the band lends to this coat.

The buttons I picked up from Spotlight for 89c each.

I made a size 3-4 years, and it fits my boy great. He is 3 years old, but wears size 4 shirts. It fits over his clothes like a good coat should, and even though its a 3-4 year size, I can easily see him getting this and next season out of it.

I made the sleeves slightly longer to account for this, but I wish I had made the hood slightly larger. It fits fine now, but may not next year.