A Blooming Baby Gift

At present, two of my nieces are expecting babies in April, which meant that as the New Year dawned I realized I had some serious gift preparation to do because I wanted to give each niece a baby blanket, a pair of matching booties, and a stuffed toy that I had made (and I added a book as well, but I could just buy those). This post is about the first gift set.

The elder of my nieces told me she is decorating her nursery in purple and going with a "zoo garden" theme. I looked specifically for a baby blanket pattern that would suit this theme, and found the Dahlia Blanket, designed by Daniel Yuhas. This pattern was published in Knitting from the Center Out: An Introduction to Revolutionary Knitting with 28 Modern Projects.

This is my version of the Dahlia Blanket. It's knitted in Loops and Threads Impeccable, in Lavender, which I bought at Michaels. It's an acrylic, which will make it indestructible and easy care. I'll definitely be using this baby blanket pattern again. It's lovely and the "centre out" construction is really cool.

With the baby blanket finished, I moved on to making the booties. I looked for a worsted weight slipper pattern with a floral theme, to go with the blanket, and found the Leaf Lace Booties, designed by Jacqueline van Dillen. This pattern was published in 60 Quick Baby Knits: Blankets, Booties, Sweaters & More.
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Here's my version of the Leaf Lace slippers, knitted in the same lavender worsted as the blanket.

Finally, I made a stuffed bunny toy to round out the set. This toy was sewn from McCall's 6907, which I have had for years and used many, many times. These toys make a great, easy-to-make gift for baby showers. I can whip together two in about two and a half hours, and I usually have fabric and ribbon on hand that I can use. This bunny was made out of a dark brown stretch velvet, which is very soft and cuddly as well as being easy to work with and fairly hard wearing.

So that's one gift set down. Stay tuned for my next post, which will be on blanket, bootie, and bunny set number two.