The Babies Are Coming!

It seems a new wave of babies are making or have made their way into the Clan.  The next generation is on it's way. My nephew who was born when I was 15 years old is now having a baby with his girlfriend.  My son's twenty-three year old half sister who was about six when my son was born is due in June. My cousin's son just had his third child and my other cousin's daughter who was born when I was a senior in high school had a little boy about three months ago. Whew...the babies are coming! I'm very excited about the new arrivals, but it only points out one thing that I'm just beginning to pay more attention to these last few years...I'm getting old(er), because I can remember when each one of them was born and now they are having babies of their own!

But the fun part about babies that aren't yours is you can hold them, spoil them as much as you like and then hand them back to their parents!  The other fun part about babies is all the great baby knitting I can do in half the time it takes to make an adult size item.

Like these great baby sets I've done over the past month:


For my cousin's baby who was born in January
Sweater: "Sock" It to Me (for Girls) by Vicki K. Byram
Booties: Baby Janes by Valerie Johnson
Hat: Eyelet Baby Hat by Brigitte Lang

As soon as I saw this color I knew I had to use it for what I call the Georgia Peach Baby Set for my new baby cousin who lives in Locust Grove, Georgia. I finished the baby booties and hat this past weekend and I was so happy to mail them off to my cousin and his wife just yesterday.

Aren't these Baby Janes the cutest?

With this eyelet hat to match!



For my girlfriend's baby due next week.
Sweater: Beautiful Baby Bamboo-Merino Sweater by Carol J. Sorsdahl
Booties: Baby's Wool-Tencel Booties by Lind Burt
Hat: Baby Squash Hat by Tamara Del Sonno

This one I call the Little Boy Blue baby set. I made this for my friend who is due any day now.  I can't wait to see her little one wrapped up in this set.

too cute!

so tiny!

Currently, I'm working on the Garden Trellis Dress by Susan Boye for my nephew's baby due in May.  I am using Berocco Weekend in Vanilla 5902.  It is a soft comfortable machine washable blend of 25% Peruvian Cotton and 25% Acrylic that is great for both warm and cool weather.

The feather & fan edge gives it a sweet look.

When I am done with the dress I will be adding a Feather and Fan Baby Bonnet by Sandy Davis that uses the same pattern as the edging on the dress and Page 81 booties (pictured below) by Susan B. Anderson
another pair of Baby Janes by Valerie Johnson.

I embellished them with crochet butterflies by Crocheted Sass

Still to come are a zip-up hooded sweater for another cousin's baby who was born about three months ago and for my son's half sister the Precious Bundle Set (pictured below) in a mercerized cotton called Reynolds Saucy

Can be found on e-Patternscentral

Will make the above hat, cardigan and booties set for my
son's half sister who is due in June

P.S.  I just finished the Garden Trellis Dress this evening:

My little grandniece will be styling in her baby sundress!

The complete set:

Embellished with purple crochet butterflies

Noticing Knitwear Everywhere!

Do you find yourself noticing that great scarf on the person in the grocery line in front of you? Or the cool knit cap on the guy pumping gas next to you? Do you wonder if it’s knit or crochet? What stitches were used to make it? Or could I duplicate it when I got home or find a pattern that closely resembles it? Since I’ve started my new love of knitting I’ve been noticing knitwear more and more when I’m out and about. Friends laugh at me when I approach them and ask to feel their sweaters or scarves or want to get a closer look to check out the pattern that’s used. Going a step further I’ve begun noticing the knitwear that are on screen… that is the TV screen. I watch the MoviePlex station on cable and it shows old movies that I watched as a kid and am seeing again years later, but the difference now is I’m paying more attention to the knitwear more than the story line.

I’m even noticing in my favorite TV shows the knitwear of many of my favorite characters. For instance, recently, I started watching a new show on USA, Fairly Legal, on Thursday nights. I’m into cop and lawyer shows so this piqued my interest. The main character “Kate Reed” played by Sarah Shahi is a lawyer in her father’s law firm. The premiere of the show begins with her returning to the firm after his death and she has decided she doesn’t want to be a lawyer anymore but wants to help people, so she’s the firm’s mediator. Well I really got into the show and even found it very interesting, but I found myself paying more attention to the cable knit hat she is wearing when she’s riding the ferry. It stood out to me because cables are the bane of my existence, I can’t seem to get them right and this one looked very complicated and I thought how would someone even attempt to do that? But not only did I notice Kate’s hat, but later in the show you meet her assistant Leo who sports a couple of different sweater vests and regular sweaters that I couldn’t help but notice, they were very stylish, with classic designs and great colors. Matter of fact the one he’s wearing in the photo below reminds me of the Classic Camel Vest by Tara Jon Manning from the Men in Knits book, although the one Leo is wearing doesn’t have the cables, which is what I would prefer making.

Here are some of the knitwear that I've noticed while watching some of my favorite shows:

Sarah Shahi as "Kate Reed" in Fairly Legal
Cable Hat

Baron Vaughn as "Leo" - Kate Reed's assistant
V-neck vest sweater

Candace Accola as "Caroline" on CW's
Vampire Diaries wearing short-sleeved lace shrug

Right: Meaghan Rath as "Sally" in the SyFi Channel's
new show Being Human wearing a short
front/long back cardigan

Chris Colfer as "Kurt" on Glee wearing a fair isle cardigan

B.D. Wong as "Dr. George Huang" on
Law & Order SVU wearing argyle v-neck pullover

Have you taken more notice in the character's knitwear than the actual show?  Tell me about it, I'd like to hear from you.