babygift roundup!

I almost titled this post "baby roundup" but I didn't really like the idea of rounding up multiple babies... Although it still makes me giggle a little bit.

When Kat, one of my b bffs told me she was going to have a baby, I got to work on the crafting pretty much immediately. I was actually so excited, and so into this sweet little crocheted dress pattern that I started it right away, before Kat even knew the sex of her baby. I let out a huge sigh of relief when she said she was having a girl.

It's pretty unmistakably feminine. The bow on the chest just kills me! This pattern is very straightforward, classic crochet - top-down raglan construction with double crochets on top, then a vintage-feeling shell pattern on the bottom. I used brown sheep cotton fleece for the first time on this project; I was surprised at how it really just felt like cotton. The wool content made it a bit more lightweight I think, but it worked up pretty much like cotton. The only modification I made to the pattern was to add a round of single crochet stitches on each edge (bottom of sleeves, bottom of skirt, and around the neck - although I think that last one is actually called for in the pattern) to neaten things up.

Secondly, I managed to whip up this pair of booties just a couple days before Kat's shower, after I saw her post a similar-looking pair on pinterest.

I've gotta say, this pattern isn't my favorite. The decreases on the top of the foot are a bit extreme and cause some holes in the fabric, and some strange bunching. The booties are also actually mostly worked in rounds that are turned, which seems unnecessary. They left me wondering: why use turned rounds in crochet? (i.e., join a round, then turn the fabric and work another round on the wrong side, etc.) I know practically that this means you're looking at the backs of crochet stitches on every other row, and that the fabric then looks slightly different as a result ... but why bother? I feel like I'm missing something here.

Lastly, I am so, so into this blanket I made.

I believe I originally saw this idea on pinterest as Casey's version of this pattern (a free one from Caron yarns). It's a simple idea: squares lines up corner the corner, with a ripple pattern coming off the ends. Kat has a ripple afghan in her apartment that her great grandmother made with a sort of ombre maroon thing going on, so I thought I'd make something to complement that. I chose four colors of Miss Babs Yowza; suffice it to say I have about a million yards of all these colors left over because these skeins are ginormous, but I'm not complaining because it is a BEAUTIFUL yarn.

There is my stoic husband, withstanding a blanket photoshoot in the park on what must have been one of the windiest days in Chicago history... I have a lot of pictures of crocheted FOs getting blown through the park.

I made one really obvious modification to the pattern, which was to only include one row of grannies on the end. The number of granny rows in the original pattern looks a bit schizophrenic.

I also whipped up a hat for this kid (she is never going to be cold, thanks to me and Allison) but failed to photograph it before the shower. I know; I don't even know who I am, either. Hopefully once the baby arrives I can get some pictures of her wearing it!