New Knits for New Additions

I know, I know I haven’t posted much knitting lately but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been, believe me I sure have.
A few weeks ago I cast on a gift for a co-worker who is having her first child in October. It’s a wonderful pattern by Kate Lemmers, aka knitsophrenic called Giggles Baby Blanket.

I am having such a good time knitting it, if you want a beautiful fun to knit baby blanket I highly recommend this one. Go on, add it to your Ravelry and/or Craftsy queue, you never know.

So the woman I’m knitting Giggles for is one of those people you just can’t help but like. I’ve had this pattern in my library for a while now, waiting for just the right pregnancy announcement (There’s been a bit of a baby bonanza around my office lately…I watch where I sit.) She’s it. However, the fact that she her husband doesn’t want to know the sex of their baby until it’s born almost drove me to drink more. I couldn’t bear the thought of knitting another green or yellow thing, only because I’ve done several projects in those colors recently so I asked for some advice on Twitter about gender-neutral (excluding beige or white) alternatives.
I got great ideas from some uber- talented knitters including Samurai Knitter, Knitsophrenic (she didn’t even know what I was knitting yet, snicker), polkadotsandsun, Johanna_Lynn, Anneduffin and Manos Yarn. I love the suggestion of knitting rich colors for a baby and so I finally settled on purple.

Sigh. I selected a couple of possibilities in that color space and wouldn’t you guess it, I could not find them ANYWHERE!

I tweeted out my frustration and don’t you know Twitter once again came to my rescue. Actually, it was Katie aka @polkadotsandsun who rescued me. She was nice enough to go to her LYS and check on the yarn for me. They had it and she personally shipped it to me. Katie and I have never met. How incredibly sweet was that!? It’s Cascade 220 Superwash Heather in 1947 colorway. It’s a nice rich heather purple. Who would have thought this would be difficult to find, go figure.

I’ve done ten repeats of the pattern so far. Look how pretty!

I had some concerns about using non-natural fibers for babies, despite the fact that so many so-called baby yarns contain them. And this is especially true for objects that the little one may sleep in/on/with. I got advice on that from many of the same twitter friends too! So you’d think Choosing Cascade 220 woulda made it an easy find, HA!

Hey, have you noticed how many knitters there are named Kate, Katie, Kathy, Katherine? A lot!

Anyway, I’ll be posting my progress on my Ravelry page and will definitely blog the final photo when it’s done.

Ya know, I think this social media thing is gonna catch on!