When my nephew, Caleb, was born 7 weeks ago, all I had ready for him was a hat. I was feeling like a bad uncle and really wanted to make him something else.

Fortunately I found the Easy Baby Cardigan. It’s a free pattern from one of our favorite pattern companies, Knitting Pure and Simple. The cardigan is knit from the neck down in one piece. There’s an optional hood, if you like.

My sister-in-law is sensitive to wool, and since we don’t know how Caleb will be yet, I chose Blue Sky Alpaca’s Skinny Cotton yarn. This was my first project with Skinny Cotton and I really enjoyed it. It’s soft with good drape and comes in great colors. I needed 3 hanks of Skinny Cotton, but had enough left over to knit Caleb a matching hat.