Baby Knitting (not for me)

So now that we've see all the '09 sock fails. Let's talk about some successes.

My friend Ellen, who you've heard about before*, had a baby. A really cute baby. Now, we know the baby knitting rules. If you were in the wedding party, baby gets a gift. If not, baby maybe gets a gift. Ellen falls into the former of these two categories, so a gift was happening.

Since I'm notorious for taking longer than necessary to knit things, I typically start to plan these things from the moment the news is first announced, and finish them two months after the baby arrives. This time was no different. I bought the yarn in Maine this summer. Cast on just about the same time little Shelby arrived (actually hours before I received the email in some creepy psychic sort of way), finished just before Christmas, and sent it off in the mail on New Year's Eve.

Ellen, in classic style, sent a hardcopy photo of Shelby in her sweater, which arrived back here by January 8th. If we were TV sitcom roomates, she'd be the smart on-the-ball one, and I'd be the one with the best intentions who can't quite get it all together. Pretty much living together was just like that. :)

The knitter's among you will recognize this as Elizabeth Zimmerman's iconic Baby Surprise Jacket. One of which I have knitted before. Same comments, the women is brilliant. The pattern is fun. It must be for me to have knit it twice.

The yarn is a rare gem, purchased in a small shop in Bar Harbor, ME, which had just recently opened. It's called Superstar, by a company called Starcroft fibers. It's superwash, so it's baby friendly. I bought it on a day off from our busy field season. The deal was, I'd give the grad students a day to visit the National Park, but they had to take me to the yarn store! Since then I haven't been able to find a website for the store, but it's right downtown and hard to miss.

I used almost all of two balls (one in teal and one in nutmeg), on size 4 needles. The colors at the shop were limited in the gender neutral sense, I thought this combo would work. I used a random striping pattern, first by flipping a coin, then by making a random list in excel. I picked up stitches around the neck and did a picot bind-off to make it just a little girlie, since by then we knew she was a she. The buttons were a happy coincidence from my button stash. Nothing fancy, just shell buttons available at most craft stores, but they picked up the yarn colors nicely. All in all a classic, cute, squishy BSJ!

* No, the afghan is not done, but we are up to 26 of the 99 squares. Coming out with that fact is making me think that it needs to be next on the finish it up list.