The Little Rascals by Julia Stanfield is one of my favourite patterns. Actually it is a whole set of patterns, it is really clever and versatile and I wish I could come up with something as well thought-out as this pattern (and no I am not getting paid for praising her 🙂 ).

It is a seamless knit so you do not get those sometimes fairly bulky seams when you are using a thicker yarn and there are no troubles with armholes not quite meeting the width of the sleeves. Especially for children cloths I find those two criteria very appealing.

The other thing I really like about this pattern is the fact that it is knitted from top to bottom which means you can adjust the length much more easily and just stop knitting at the required length (even trying it on before cutting off the yarn) rather than doing complicated measurements and calculations in order to suit your particular needs.

Now, both techniques have existed before and have been invented by another very clever person (who should be praised for, too) but I just happened to stumble upon this pattern and it has been the base for a few sweaters so far. My own children and two nephews were lucky enough to get woolen ones for this winter, the next one to knit will be a summery cardigan for my niece.

Who would think that those two come from the same original pattern:

This is one that I have just made for a young boy, I quite like the slightly crazy eyes of the caterpillar, it must be really hungry:

And the best thing is that actually the pattern offers me lots of variations, sweater, cardigan or short sleeved vestee, different types of pockets, collar or no collar, hood or no hood,…

So those options plus my own ideas basically allow me endless and very individual designs which is just great.