In mid-February 2023, I received the news that I am to have a new grandniece in May 2023. With only three months' notice, it was clearly time to fire up the knitting needles. By the time I went to bed that night, I had the baby's birth gift planned and knitting patterns selected for it. I decided I would make Baby Swan a baby blanket and a pair of matching booties, and buy her a storybook.
For the baby blanket, I selected the Dreamland Adventures Baby Blanket design by Mary Triplett. It's very pretty and not an especially time intensive knit.
Then I searched Ravelry for a baby bootie pattern that would be a good complement to the baby blanket design. The My Fairy Booties design by Drops seemed to fit the bill, as the teardrop lace stitch on the anklet and the garter stitch in the feet and at the top are quite similar to the teardrop lace and garter borders of the blanket. And it's a free pattern.
When it was time to shop for yarn, I went to Michaels and looked for a DK weight yarn with some natural fibre content that was machine washable and dryable. They only had one brand of yarn that fit my criteria, and it only came in three colours, only one of which was at all attractive, but hey, I only needed one suitable yarn, and it was on sale for 25% off. The yarn was Loops & Threads Luxe Merino in Bridal Rose, or what I would describe as a shell pink, which is slightly warmer and richer than the standard baby pink.
The completed baby blanket. This knitted up fairly easily. I had some difficulty reading the patterns because my printer didn't print them well, but that's on my printer, not on the designer, who provided *three* versions of this design's chart in her pattern in an all-out effort make it as clear and readable as possible.
A close up of the baby booties. They have a crocheted picot edging on the top that I had to buy a 3 mm crochet hook for, but then it doesn't hurt to add another size to my set of crochet hooks. When I went through my ribbon cannister to see what I had that I could use for the ankle ribbons, I didn't have any pink yarn whatsoever (not surprising, as I never wear pink and don't often work with it even as gifts for other people), but these cream ribbons looked well with them.
I am having a few qualms about how frou-frou this baby blanket and booties are. From what I've seen of my nephew and his wife's household via photos on Facebook, while it's nice and well-kept, it has a very plain and spare aesthetic, with very little colour or detail, and there's nary a bit of pink, lace, or ribbon in sight. But then they are having a baby girl, and if this is the most frilly thing they receive for her, she'll be nearly as sensibly turned out as her parents and her big brother.
This yarn came in 150 gram skeins, which I wasn't thrilled about, because it makes it difficult to buy an appropriate amount of yarn. I had 110 grams of yarn left when I finished this project. Had I been able to buy the yarn in 50 gram skeins, I would have had just 10 grams left.
As for the baby's storybook, I had the good luck to find this set of Madeline storybooks in a Salvation Army thrift shop. They came in a very battered case which I threw in the recycling bin when I got home, but the books themselves were in pristine shape.
So that's the baby's birth gift, which I had prepared by April 1st, less than six weeks after learning the baby was on her way. I'm ready when you are, Baby Swan!
