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Thursday, March 31, 2011

Baby Knits

Oh, how much fun it is to knit for a baby!  And, so fast!  My mom came up from Florida to meet her first granddaughter when she was 2 days old.  When she returned to see her again at 3 weeks, she came bearing the most darling dress and sweater/hat/booties set.  My mom is my inspiration when it comes to all things knitting.  But me, on the other hand, I need more time to get these things done, so I did plan ahead a little.   Here is our new little button, Mira Hope Honeybee, wearing the (my first every completed) sweater I made for her while she was a bun in the oven.  I put the “rose” buttons on after she came out!  And she lays on a gorgeously soft blanket made by my mom.

Not knowing I was having a girl (but having a feeling), I decided to go ahead and knit a little dress anyway.  I had three goals in mind: to knit something in white, something knit from the top down in one piece and to use cotton yarn.  I used the Versa pattern by Shannon Passmore I found on Ravelry.  (By the way, I LOVE Ravelry!)  The pattern is very flexible in that you can make a shirt, tunic, or dress.  The way it was written and organized confused me at first, and I wanted to use two colors of yarn which she does not specify in the pattern, so I did have to go forward and back a little bit, but once I got the hang of how the pattern was written, it was smooth sailing.  Here is the result:

I may still add an embroidered flower or two on the front, I haven’t made up my mind yet.  The cotton has a nice feel and drape to it, but it was definitely not as smooth to knit with as some of the nice merino I have been using to make a vest for myself (more on that later).
Of course, for some reason, everyone tells you how fun it is to dress a girl.  But, really, they are right.  Look at all these cute baby girl knits (blue dress and orange/pink sweater from Nan).

"The Quiltmaker's Journey"

Last week we got a lovely book from the library, “The Quiltmaker’s Journey” by Jeff Brumbeau and illustrated by Gail de Marcken.  I always love finding children’s books that are well-written and well-illustrated—the combination is surprisingly rare.  The story of an isolated girl who doesn’t know the struggles of the poor in the world and once she her eyes are opened how she finds a way to help, is touching and inspiring.

I look forward to reading another book by this duo, “The Quiltmaker’s Gift.” And, happily, a quick search for this book turned up a great homeschool lesson plan for it!!  I can’t wait to do this with the boys.