5 Hour Knit Baby Sweater – A Little Smaller!

June 4, 2017 by Beverly

Several months ago I shared my version of a classic pattern for a knit baby sweater that can be made quickly – in just 5 hours! It’s been a popular free knitting pattern here on my blog and I’m so glad that others have found this to be a fun and enjoyable project too.

Another thing that makes this pattern a favorite is that it can be made with a basic worsted weight yarn (those types of yarn labeled as “4” ) which are the most common yarns sold. BUT there are also lots of lovely yarns (especially for baby projects) that are a lighter weight that used to be called DK weight and is now usually labeled as “3”. A reader recently emailed me asking – was it possible to use that lighter weight yarn for the 5 hour baby sweater knitting pattern?

My answer? Yes! You’ll just end up with a super cute tinier sized sweater, and tiny newborns need sweaters too!

I know this first hand because my second grandbaby came along a few weeks early, weighing in at 5 lbs and 12 oz. The 5 hour baby sweater I had knit for her (which is about a 6 month size) was way too big! And it was the middle of January and I really wanted to make her a little sweater that would fit her right away.

So . . . I went down one size in the needle to a size 6, used a size 3 weight yarn, and other than that followed the 5 hour baby sweater pattern as written.

And I was very pleased with how it turned out!

Those two small changes resulted in a very cute tiny sweater that was just perfect for a newborn. In fact she wore it for the next 8 weeks or so and it worked wonderfully. My daughter estimated the size of that sweater to be about a 0 – 3 month size and would fit a baby up to about 10 or 12 lbs.

Using the size 6 needles gave me a sweater that was about 8″ long and 16″ around, just a smidge smaller than the original pattern (that makes a finished sweater 10″ long and 20″ around). In the picture below where the little sweater is laying on top of the other sweater, you can see that it is just a bit smaller all the way around. (The yarn I used for the small sweater is Lion Brand Baby Soft yarn in Twinkle).

I’ve updated my free printable pattern for the 5 hour baby sweater to include this additional piece of info. Just remember:

Size 6 Needles and “3” weight yarn = 0 – 3 month size (approx 8″ long, 16″ around)
Size 7 Needles and “4” weight yarn = 6 month size (approx 10″ long, 20″ around)

And finally, our little sweetie even wore her tiny newborn sweater in one of her first photo shoots. If you want to be prepared with a very tiny sweater for a newborn, this small adaptation to the pattern might be just the easy adjustment you’re looking for.

To read more about this pattern (which includes my updates to use the most familiar type of increase and to see my hour-by-hour pictures of how the 5 hours of knitting go by), click here: 5 Hour Baby Sweater Knitting Pattern

For the free printable pattern, click here: Printable pdf for the 5 Hour Baby Sweater Knitting Pattern

To see more of my knitting patterns, click here: Make Your Own Zone Knitting Patterns

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