I got an e-mail a few days ago from my cousin Lakshmi, telling me, belatedly, that our cousin Rozanne's baby shower is this coming Sunday in Canada. I didn't have time to go to the yarn store, and I'm not positive that even with stash digging, I'll be able to finish something today and send it off in time for the shower. But a day or two late won't really matter -- the baby's not due 'til June. And quick deadline or not, the frugal New Englander in me (she does come out occasionally), is particularly pleased that I don't actually need to buy new yarn to make something lovely and handmade for this baby. I dug through my stash of leftovers from various projects, and came up with the following possible combinations, for a baby of indeterminate gender.
I'm not sure whether Rozeann is a bright colors person or not, so while I quite like the combo of orange cotton with white, I think I'll save that for another project. I can imagine an adorable little dress, perhaps, mostly in the cotton angora, but detailed with an orange hem and perhaps some orange flowers. For Kavi? And the blue/brown combo, while striking and rich in color, is maybe a little masculine for what might turn out to be an infant girl. Also, that suede would be awfully hot for a summer baby, I think.
The green and white baby merino (superwash) is the most obvious choice. It'd make a lovely little blanket, all fresh and spring-like. But I ended up going with a slightly odd choice -- the leftover sock yarn that I bought for Kevin's socks. It's very light-weight, and stretchy, and I think with a nice open crochet pattern, it'll be reasonably cool for a summer baby to wear. I don't actually know what kind of yarn this is, unfortunately, so I'm going to have to stick a hand-wash label on it, which is a bit of a shame for new parents to deal with. But hopefully they'll like the piece enough that they'll be willing to wash it by hand.
I'm actually making up the pattern as I go -- I'm not sure exactly it'll be, but I think probably a tapered kimono of some kind. Unless I run out of yarn, which is eminently possible, in which case, it'll turn into a sleeveless pullover. Which might make more sense in summer anyway, even if infants do generally hate having things pulled over their heads. :-) Mostly, I just love the colors in this yarn, the subtle variation of blues and browns and greens and lavender. I think the end result will be very earth-baby, and would look gorgeous on either a boy or a girl. And so far, we don't seem to be having too bad pooling problems.
We'll see how it turns out -- with any luck, I'll actually finish it today, since the only other thing I have to do is submit some AWP panel proposals. Lori's coming by with Ursa, so a bit of work, a bit of crochet, a bit of chatting. Nice day.
