Best Yarn for Quickie Baby Sweater

[Momof4Greys]

I saw this Pattern on another post and want to knit it up for my brand new baby niece Krista Lynn. What would be the best yarn for baby items?? I know it can't be something that shrinks and harsh against her skin, but are acrylic yarns OK for babies?? Is a blend better, what blend though?

Here is the pattern, it calls for Cascade Sierra, what yarn is that??

Quickie Baby Sweater

[divagirl]

Cute sweater! For babies, it's gotta be machine washable. I really like Encore - I have used worsted and chunky with good results. Encore chunky is really soft. If your niece doesn't have any allergies acrylic should be fine. If you'd really like to use a natural fiber, Swish superwash from Knitpicks is really nice and soft.

Plymouth makes a yarn I can't wait to try callled Oh My!. I saw it at the LYS and there were two really cute patterns, one for a sweater and one for a bunting. HTH

[Jan in CA]

Cascade Sierra sure has some pretty colors! It's mostly cotton so it's probably pretty soft.

Any yarn that has the same gauge would work I think. Just think soft and washable.

[Momof4Greys]

OK, I'm not sure how to do this so I'm asking the experts:

Row 9: K3, * K1, insert needle under next horizontal loop below (between sts) and knit this st. Repeat from * across, ending K4 (47 sts)

I tried to do what I thought it said and some how I dropped sts. I have no idea how to do this. Please explain.

Next Questions:

* Inc 1 st in st. (Does this mean knit into the front and back of the st for the increase?

If the pattern doesn't tell you which type if increase to do which is the best increase st?