Usually the baby blanket is a surprise but since I was doing most of my crocheting at Steve’s place, I figured Jamie had to be in on the secret. That gave her the chance to choose her own design. She picked one that looked like a field of daisies. Only problem is she doesn’t like yellow or green. Maliyah’s assigned colors were two shades of purple so I picked out a lilac and a grape and here’s the result, modeled by Maliyah herself. She was born two weeks early so I was home madly weaving in ends while she was making her first appearance to the world.

Jamie’s having two showers so I made two sets of booties. These are both from Precious Baby Booties which has patterns that look good, use sport weight yarn, and work up quickly. This is my favorite bootie book.

These are for the granddaughter of a co-worker and are from a little booklet I got somewhere. The booklet must have been written for a UK audience originally because the first time I tried to make a pair of booties from it they came out ginormous. It took a while to figure out that TC meant DC and DC meant SC and so on. Now I’ve written it into the instructions so I’ll remember. I wonder how, when, and why the UK and US got to using different terms for the same stitches.

The blanket I made for Jake when he was born got misplaced so I made a replacement. I forgot to get a picture of it but the only difference between the original and the new one is that the green stripes only go in one direction. It was faster and took less green yarn that way (I was lucky I had as much left over as I did and that I hadn’t used it for anything else).

Kiana’s brother got basketball shoes for baby booties so her parents wanted ballet slippers to continue the theme. This was a basic pattern from Precious Baby Booties with some extra ribbons sewn on and some tissue stuffed in the toe.

I had trouble with the zipper (the zipper foot doesn’t guide so well over multiple layers of fleece) and I didn’t finish off the seams, but this is a cute sleeper from a pattern. It seems kind of big for a newborn to me but I don’t have a newborn to try it on. The way you put the elastic in for the booties is kind of ingenuous but I had a lot of trouble reading this pattern and did a ridiculous amount of ripping things out. I don’t know if the pattern was worded badly or if it was just that I’m rusty. I’m also still not liking the new sewing machine but if I tape certain parts into place it does its job.

This is my own design – rows of fluffy, white bunny tails with variegated rag confetti in between. Not very practical but very girlish. Now let’s just hope it turns out to be a girl, otherwise there will be some quick re-work.

It’s hard to get a good picture of this yarn. The variegated yarn is somewhat lighter and more pastelly than it appears in the photo and it has a sparkle thread running through it. This is the second blanket I’ve made from Our Best Baby Afghans. It’s for my cousin Peter’s first baby.

It’s hard to get the colors exactly right in a photo but I think this is the prettiest baby blanket I’ve made yet. I love the fresh new colors they have for babies these days, not just the tired pastels. The pattern is worked diagonally in squares. I was supposed to be able to carry the color I wasn’t using but couldn’t hide it well enough so I ended up carrying only the white and cutting green. That meant a few ends to weave in but it was worth it.

Here’s the full blanket.

The pattern came from Our Best Baby Afghans.

These are for my third nephew, yet to be born (or named).