Gifts Given

Some of the many exciting things that I got to do on my visit to MN was to give people gifts that I had been saving for them. The gift giving extravaganza means that I can now post some of these projects that I had only been able to post sneak peaks of before. It also means that I can stop talking about "pregnant friends" because I have photos and names and stories to share.

In no particular order...

Mark and Jerri are pregnant! Jerri was in the last day of her 7th month when I got together with them to see their new apartment and have a great dinner at the French Meadow Bakery. Dinner was delicious and the company was excellent as always. I got a chance to witness Jerri satisfying her ongoing pregnancy cravings of hot water at the restaurant.

There little one is due July 4th, but I wanted to give them a little something in anticipation so I made them my version of the Bib O' Love from Mason Dixon Knitting and the GRRR! washcloth from Knitty.

I'm hoping the tie will be more washable and more secure than the button closure the pattern called for.

Next up, due only three days later is Jamie and Adam! Adam hightailed it out of town to allow for lots of girl time at his house. That's why he isn't pictured. Jamie bought some yarn on her first visit to visit me in MA. She hadn't figured out what to knit with it and had been holding on to it for 4 years. When she found out she was pregnant shortly before my last birthday, she sent the yarn to me with a baby hat pattern as her way of telling me her good news. It was an amazing birthday present.

The hat pattern she sent was a pretty simple one and I thought this special yarn (Dancing Leaf Mohair/Wool) deserved a special pattern. After lots of research on Ravelry, I settled on the Sweet Baby Cap.

After I finished the hat, I had some extra yarn left so I was also able to make some little booties. The leftover yarn wasn't enough, so I had to get creative and use another yarn to make it work. I ended up using every bit of the skein of yarn from Jamie.

Next up is Joanne. She isn't pregnant but thanks to her pregnancy nearly 30 years ago, I have my husband Paul. Also, thanks to Joanne, I have nearly doubled my yarn stash. She has been really generous with gift certificates to local yarn stores around Massachusetts. I figured that she more than deserved a random knitted gift. I got to give it to her when we met up for lunch at the yummy Cafe Brenda.

I made Joanne the Friday scarf from the now defunct MagKnits website. It is knit out of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk.