Twenty-eight pansies

My dear niece begins first grade in September, so I decided to knit her a couple of jumpers to get her started off on the right foot. (Not that she needs it, mostly I just thought it would be fun).

I finished the first of the two. It's actually a baby design by Kari Haugen published in the Dale of Norway Baby Collection Nr. 114. I modified it to fit a 6 year-old and added the colored stripes at the bottom of the bodice.

I purled the yellow centers of the pansies to add texture to the design and while I was knitting it the fabric was somewhat puckered. However, a good blocking seems to have taken care of 99% of the problem. There is still a small amount of pulling just below the yellow centers where I wove in the floats. I got lots of support and ideas about how to prevent this in the future from Mary Ann of http://www.kidsknits.com/ and the Two Strands group on Ravelry. Many thanks!

I was watching "An Affair to Remember" when I picked up the stitches on the left armhole which is clearly not beneficial to my knitting technique. The right sleeve stitch pick-up looks much more professional thanks to the fact that I gave it my full attention!

I thought these pansy buttons were perfect! I found them on Etsy at http://www.lovebuttons.etsy.com/.

Here are the specs:

Design: Kari Haugen for Dale of Norway, Baby Collection Nr. 114

Yarn: Baby Ull (natch) - light green (9013), deep lavendar (5135), deep blue (5545), pastel lavender (5303), and yellow (2015).

Needles: US0 and US2

Gauge: 28 stitches and 38 rounds in 4" x 4"