The Emperor's New Playsuit
As soon as I found out Kim and Al were going to have a baby (known foetally as "The Emperor", later to be named "Jimmy"), I knew I had to make something. Turning back to Minnowknits Too, I found a good project called "Jailbird"---so named because the design involves horizontal stripes in what is basically a pair of overalls.
Given my general hatred for weaving in ends, I am not a fan of horizontal stripes. I found a great colour of lavender/purple cotton yarn that would look good on either a boy or a girl (at the time, we still didn't know), and planned to start it right away. Of course, that was the Summer of the Wedding Afghan, so I didn't actually get it started until about a week before Kim's duedate. Obligingly, Jimmy delayed his arrival by about a week and a half (!), and I ended up finishing it on his birthday, though the actual presenting had to wait until I could get to Champaign.
Pattern modifications
Aside from ditching the stripes, I also modifed the leg patterns to be in the round; why make a seam where I didn't have to? (A lot of striped patterns like back-and-forth knitting, because otherwise you get a little jaggie where the colour changes.) Also, the cuff was simply cavernous, so I cut down the number of CO sts to 44 (and added increases to the top of the cuff accordingly).
I still had some leftover yellow cotton yarn from Loren's jumper, so I threw that into a nice wave pattern all the way around the middle of the playsuit:
X.......XX.......X XX.....XXXX.....XX .XX...XX..XX...XX. .XX...XX..XX...XX. ..XXXXX....XXXXX.. ...XXX......XXX...
On the front flap of the overalls, I then put a complementary pattern:
........XXX......XXX......XXX......XXX........ .......XXXXX......XXX....XXX......XXXXX....... ......XX...XX.......XX..XX.......XX...XX...... ......XX...XX.......XX..XX.......XX...XX...... ....XXX.....XXX......XXXX......XXX.....XXX.... ...XXX.......XXX......XX......XXX.......XXX...
When the thing was done, I discovered that the edges around the neck and arms look just terrible, because that's what happens when you run stockinette stitch right up to the top or side edges of something. So I pulled out my crochet hook and added one row of single crochet around the neck line and two rows around the armholes. They still curl slightly, but it looks a whole lot better now.
Materials
US-3 dpns for the cuffs; US-5 16" circular needle for the legs and body; US-E crochet hook for the finishing. 5½ sts/in, 7½ rows/in.
Four 100m (50g) skeins of Tahki Cotton Classic, colour #3934 (lot 220) were used, although I suspect I could have done it in three if I've needed to (I balled a fourth to make the shoulder straps easier). The wave pattern was done in leftover Tahki #3533.