Baby gifts

My niece Riley turned 1 yesterday. Her parents had a party for her, attended by adults. Unfortunately, the people she invited who also have kids were not able to come. So those in attendance were the 8 members of my family and 4 of Kevin and Christy's friends. It was quite interesting to watch all of these adults around the baby. She opened gifts with Mommy and Daddy while 12 adults stood in a semi-circle around them, taking pictures.

Anyway, for her birthday, I made her Kate. Only, this one is named Lil' Max, after Kevin and Cristy's cat, Max, who is also grey.



Ri took it out of the box and immediately hugged it.



It was one of those "awwwwwwwwwww" moments.

Kevin thinks the cat looks strange, but Ri loves it, so that's all that matters.

I followed the pattern exactly as written, except for yarn choice. The original pattern uses Lamb's Pride. I didn't have any, so I used what I had on hand (Caron Simply Soft and Encore Worsted), which is not as heavy as Lamb's Pride. In order to get a tight enough gauge, so that the stuffing wouldn't show through, I used size 5 needles. This resulted in a smaller toy. He's probably about 9 or 10 inches tall, which is 2 inches smaller than the one in the pattern.

I already have the yarn to make a Lil' Pants - one that looks like the brown tabby cat that Kevin and Christy have, named Pants.

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Since Kevin and Christy were in St. Louis for Christmas this year, the family got together today to exchange gifts. I made 2 things for Riley for Christmas.

First up is a pink hat.



The yarn is some handspun, hand dyed alpaca that I bought at the Estes Park Alpaca Market in 2007. The pattern is from 101 Designer One Skein Wonders. This was sort of a last-minute addition. I wanted to give her a little something extra, and a hat seemed quick and easy.

The other Christmas gift I made for Ri is something that I'm particularly proud of: Ribbed Baby Jacket by Debbie Bliss.



I didn't keep track of when I started and finished this, but it only took a week or so. It is knitted in one piece starting from the back hem and ending with the front hem, with seams joining the sides and under the arms. Then stitches are picked up for the ribbed collar.



The pattern calls for a snap of some sort for a closure, but I preferred to use a button. I did a 2 row button hole and added this cute wood-like button.



The yarn is Dream in Color Classy in Good Luck Jade. I used about 1-3/4 skeins. I originally purchased the yarn (at My Sister Knits in Ft. Collins, CO - beautiful store and super nice people) with plans to make a baby blanket for my cousin. I realized a couple of months later that thinking 500 yards of yarn was enough for a baby blanket was a little stupid, and decided to make a sweater for Riley instead. I really love this yarn. The color variations are so subtle and pretty. I wish it wasn't so expensive 'cuz I'd love to make myself a sweater out of it.

So there you have it - just about the only Christmas knitting I did this year was for my niece. That made for a relatively stress-free holiday for me - at least with regards to Christmas knitting.