Baby Baby!

Boss has been having grandchildren this year.  His daughter gave birth to her first son, the first grandson in the family, in April.  Later this summer his son's wife will give birth to a daughter - their first and the 3d granddaughter in the family.

I, of course, wanted to give a gift for the new babies.  Something simple and nice and preferably handmade.  A few years ago at a previous job, several of my coworkers had babies just a few weeks apart.  I decided on washcloths, hand knit in baby colors, and presented with a bottle of baby soap.  They seemed to be very popular.  One mom declared it too pretty to be a washcloth and used it as a doily on baby's crib-side table.  Here is a link to the blog post I wrote about the washcloth pattern I made up and used.

This time, I had been blessed with a huge quantity of beautiful quilt fabrics.  I decided to make bibs for the babies and made matching booties as well.  For the grandson I decided on a rather subdued, if not masculine, fabric and chose plaids and solids in gray (I had already been knitting the gray booties and wanted the bib to complement the color).  They came out very well.  This is my favorite bootie pattern because, although the original called for angora yarn, I use regular worsted weight and the booties resemble duck feet . . . at least to me.

For the granddaughter I chose fabrics in yellow flower prints (mostly because the yarn I had on hand for the booties was also yellow.  Clever, non?)  I suffered over these booties.  Try as I might, and I tried three different but similar patterns, I could NOT get the stitches to line up properly to make that darling lacy & rounded toe.  I finally decided to be the boss of the pattern, forcing each round of stitches to line up where I knew they should and adjusting to make sure the lacy part was evenly spaced across the toe.  I succeeded and if I do say it myself, the booties are darling.


I hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I enjoyed making & giving them.

Quotable quotes; in the category I Guess That's Why We're Here!

"A baby is God's opinion that life should go on."  Carl Sandburg