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February 24, 2004

Finishing School

Last night, I had a little finishing party! Why so little? Because three of the four projects were for babies, of course! Here's what I finished, clockwise from the top:

First is the Bulky Baby Bibby, which is still in need of some buttons. As you might be able to see, I've only really blocked the bib area. I was worried that the buttonholes on the bib might be set too far in (i.e., not line up with where the buttons will be), so I did some intense blocking of both the bib and the body where the buttons will go.

Remember when I said that I was hoping to find four-leaf clover/shamrock buttons? I was pretty confident that it would be no problem. I live in Boston, after all, and we are a mere three weeks away from St. Patrick's day. So far I've only tried two places -- The Fabric Place and Michael's -- but I'm 0-for-2. I know that somebody at KnitSmiths mentioned that they'd seen four-leaf clover buttons recently, but couldn't remember where. Suggestions?

Next we have Henry's fuzzy hat (sorry the picture is washed out, it was late and the battery was dying!). This was a pure whimsy project that came from a conversation that I had with Jason's sister (Henry's mama). She said that mentioned that he was growing out of his hats and that the few remaining ones that did fit were made of wool, which seemed to irritate his skin. Later that day, I found myself in A.C. Moore when lo and behold, a skein of Lion Brand PolarSpun yarn in Polar Blue lept off of the clearance rack and into my basket. What else could I do? (Verdict on the yarn: It's super soft and the end result is fun and fuzzy. But when knit up, the yarn tends to grab on to its neighbors -- heaven forbid you have to rip any of it out!)

To the left of the fuzzy hat is a newborn cap I'm calling Lili. It's for a friend who is expecting a baby girl (to be named Liliana) any second now. I used leftovers from Cherry Mango, which was knit using Gedifra's Wellness in Rose. I sort of made the pattern up as I went along, and I've reproduced it in the "more" section of this entry. The good thing about the moss stitch band is that it is reversible, and can be flipped up if the hat is too big on the baby. The pictures didn't come out great, but this is a really sweet little cap -- and it knits up very fast!

Last, but certainly not least, is a hat for my good friend V. This one has a story. Last spring, his wife D. saw me knitting and asked me if I would make her a hat for the next winter. She is from Sri Lanka so the bitter cold of New York winters were something for which she had been wholly unprepared. I quickly knit her a striped roll-brim hat of with Filatura Di Crosa's Primo in brown and pumpkin to go along with her brown winter coat. I also bought a skein of light navy and french blue to make a matching hat for her husband (my friend V). We had dinner with V. and D. in NYC on Valentine's Day -- D. wore her hat, and proclaimed that she liked it so much that she wanted several more in different colors. After starting, ripping and restarting a few times, I finally finished her husband's and it's ready for shipping. A wool hat -- just in time for spring!

P.S. Like my new blocking board? I got it for Christmas (thanks, Mom and Dad!) but just made room for it in my office/craft room.

Posted by shannon at February 24, 2004 11:56 PM | For related posts: Green Bulky Baby Bibby, Miscellaneous Small Projects

Comments

Posted by: Dava at February 25, 2004 9:35 PM

Posted by: Dava at February 25, 2004 9:36 PM