Ideas for baby gifts

I have several friends who are pregnant and due to have their babies soon... a sign that spring is here! The tough part for me, is to decide what to knit for them.


We have several books and patterns to choose from, so it makes the decision even tougher. I love all of the patterns in the book Simply Baby by Debbie Bliss. Most of the patterns in this book are knit with sport or DK weight yarn. This may give me an excuse to finally knit with a few of the new yarns we got in, like the Rowan PureLife Cotton, the Cascade Cotton Rich DK, Berroco Comfort DK, or the so soft Babyboo!


I also have my eye on a few Plymouth Patterns... I've just been helping Jill to add hundreds of patterns to our website. I've been doing lots of data entry on over 100 Plymouth patterns and let's just say I am now very well acquainted with these patterns! During the process, I found several I'd like to make... including the Booties, Sweater, and Hat pattern. Pattern #1121 is a Baby Sweater, Hat, and Blanket which would be a great gift set especially for someone having their first baby (and like all things knitted, can be passed down to the future kiddos too.)

And, since I love color so much, I am immediately drawn to the Adriafil KnitCol Yarn. We just got in more colors that are ideal for babies, and children too. Since the yarn changes color all the time, you never get bored. In fact, you don’t really want to stop knitting, because you want to see how the pattern evolves. I find myself saying, just one more row! Patterns #1213 Baby Cardigan, and #1214 Baby Pullover are super cute and easy to knit with this yarn. So I’m back to my original problem of what to knit. Too many projects and not enough time!

Don't sweat the small stuff

For those of you who aren't local, the back room is where we keep our sport and dk weight yarns (and a few baby yarns...) During the past six years, this room has usually been the quietest in the shop. Novelty yarns weren't ever in the back room. Sock yarns have always been at the counter. Handpaints are mostly in the hallway, with some scattered throughout the store. Worsted wools for knitting and felting are in the back of the main room. And quick bulky yarns are in the front room. So all of those trends have kept knitters in other areas of the shop.

The back room hasn't been totally empty - it has always seen its share of new baby knitters. Who doesn't want to make a nice sport or fingering weight sweater, hat or blanket for that newborn? But those projects are easy to choose, so you find a pattern, pick a suitable yarn, and zim, zam, you're in and out of the back room.

During the past year and a half, though, that back room is starting to see some real action! Let's face it - not everybody can wear a bulky sweater. Even a sweater out of worsted weight yarn can be too warm for some folks. All of a sudden, sweaters in sport and dk weights have rocketed to the top of the charts. And boy do we have some luscious fibers from which to choose...

It is hard to get someone used to "small yarn" knitting, though. Customers are finding great patterns, and when they realize that they need to use a sport or dk weight yarn, most times they say, "Ugh!" But really, if you knit because you love to knit, and you love to wear what you knit, then why the "ugh"? So the stitches may be smaller, and it may take you a little more time to complete the project. But don't you love to knit? So it shouldn't matter that you are spending more time knitting something. The point is, you are knitting. So the yarn is a litte smaller than what you are used to. Don't sweat it. Knit it.

And speaking of great lighter weight yarns, I thought that last week we had finally gotten the back room to a state of organization - where it could stay for at least a few months. We've had so many new yarns recently, it was a trick to fit them all in, and in a way that made sense. But then yesterday a box arrived from JCA... It was the Jo Sharp Georgette that I ordered a couple of months ago. I guess we have to move some more things to fit it in...

It is not online (will be tomorrow) but believe me when I say, it's just incredible. The colors are lovely, and it is amazingly soft. Unfortunately, the Jo Sharp books were not in the same shipment, so we have to wait a bit for the patterns, but I do remember there were several that I wanted to make.