It has been the time to make things for babies, my own as well as other people's.
First off, I've been busy making hats for three new to the world little girls.
Two of the hats are the Poppy pattern that I have used before and find simply adorable. It lends itself to as much or as little embellishment as you like.
The hat on the left has two simple green leaves, and is reminiscent of a cherry to me. This was my first time working the pattern in worsted weight yarn (the pattern is written for nearly any weight of yarn and nearly any head size, a great, great pattern!). This was a commissioned piece for a friend to give to her brother's granddaughter.
The hat on the right was made for a friend who's little girl is due right around the same time my little baby should be coming along. She loves sharks, so I thought it would be fun to try to make a sweet girly shark. I think I succeeded. I spent about a minute trying to design my own shark, but ended up feeling like, why reinvent the wheel? I found the perfect shark pattern on Ravelry, and consulted the book 100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet: A Collection of Beautiful Blooms for Embellishing Garments, Accessories, and More to find a flower that would allow the shark to swim among the stems. I settled on the forget-me-not (which is also available for free on Ravelry!) .
It is time for babies right now! My cousin and her husband recently had a baby and I wanted to send something special to their little one. They also had a girl, but instead of doing another Poppy, I wanted to try something different. I found this pattern on Ravelry and thought that it stood out from other patterns in this style because of the way the decreases fall in the leaves, looking like stems. All three of these hats are made with acrylic yarn because babies are not mindful of how hard it is to wash wool.
Of course I've also made a few things for my own baby!
Hooray for this crocheted hippo! I love it. Puzzling over the colors was a little bit stressful, just trying to keep an even distribution and representation of each color, but the shape is so great, and I stuffed it well (with this weird slightly more "natural" stuffing), so it is very good for squeezing and hugging. I was able to almost finish the whole thing over a long weekend while my husband was camping. The yarn is all super wash wool in sock weight.
I also made a floor blanket for the baby. I've included images of before and after the border was added because the true colors of the yarn fall somewhere in the middle. Somehow I just never got a great photo of this one! I picture taking this blanket with us to parks and on visits to give the baby something soft to lay on. My sweet mom splurged and bought the yarn for me, which is a beautiful hand dyed super wash wool from Tanis Fibre Arts (Tanis also designed the pattern). I'm so glad I was able to work this pattern with a nicer yarn! I think what really makes this pattern is the wonderful subtle differences in the colors. The hand dyed yarns have a depth and variation that commercial yarns just wouldn't have. I often ponder that consistency of color was probably prized over all in yarn dying, even 20 years ago, and now it is the subtle variation of the hand dying process that catches our eye. So it goes, I suppose.
And I have one more wedding blanket to post about, but I'll save that for another day :)
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