Baby shrug with booties

Sundae“Ice Cream Sundae” by Dani Sunshine has been in my Ravelry queue since “Kelsey was a pup,” as my mother-in-law used to say. She didn’t ever have a pup named Kelsey, but the gist of it was that Kelsey’s pupitude was a unit of measure for a long time.  Anyway, I spotted it while it was being test-knit a few years back. I had to wait for a reason to knit it. Evelyn is my reason.

This is worked in Plymouth Yarn DK Merino Superwash. My experience with this yarn is that worsted weight is a bit more reliably unsplitty. But I definitely like the DK results.

It’s an interesting construction. But still very easy and a quick knit. Of course, it’s tough to not have a quick knit in a baby’s shrug pattern. I knit the smallest size, 6 months. The pattern, available for download on Ravelry, is sized in one-year increments all the way to 7 years. I like this one enough that I can definitely see myself knitting it again as Evelyn grows.

Sundae_back

I stocked enough of this yarn to knit the Rabbit Illusion blanket and planned for a sweater to match (sort of). But after I knit Ice Cream Sundae something was still missing from my (lovingly) cobbled-together summer-baby layette.

Booties. The shrug took such a small amount of yarn that I had plenty left for a pair of booties. Teeny feet can get a bit chilled even in the summer.

bootiesThese are Gail Hill’s “Flower Booties.” The free pattern is available on Ravelry. I like this little pair so much that I giggled my way through much of the knitting–even the second one. And every knitter knows that the second of any pair is always the test.

These booties really merit more attention on Ravelry. I’ve knit and posted them on my project page (Noreen1009). And one other knitter living in Turkey (crimeamom1) has knit another pair. And that’s it. OK. Every knitter with a few projects under her or his belt looks at these and can see that the petals are a tad fiddly to work up. But it’s so worth the effort. I decided that the wrap and turn wasn’t needed in the foot part of the booties because garter stitch thoroughly hides that tiny hole. Except for that one modification, I followed the pattern exactly and it was 100% correct.

Cudos to both these talented designers!