While I missed out on having babies of my own, in my 40s I was lucky enough to marry a man with three grown children. I am now very happily “Grandma Norah” to three little ones, and there are two more on the way! How could I not think about knitting for babies?
When the first grandchild arrived about two years ago, the team at Berroco was in the middle of putting together Comfort Knitting & Crochet: Babies and Toddlers. I managed to whip up a pile of prototypes of what became the Orangelo bib. I made them different sizes by starting with one less stitch in each segment for each size.
Just a few months later, a second baby had me knitting a Solaria blanket (from the same book). I knit the original sample for the book while I was designing it, and found the pattern to be kind of addictive. I knit the second one in Remix (instead of Comfort Chunky) for a change of pace.
Now, I am sadly quite behind on my baby knitting. The first two grandchildren are growing so quickly and I haven’t had time to knit anything else for them, yet. Happily, they both have many other knitting and crocheting admirers and seem to have a good supply of hats mitten and sweaters to hold them over for quite a while. For now, I am concentrating on knitting for another new arrival who came in April, and two babies due this summer!!!
When it comes to deciding what to knit for a little one, there is so much to choose from on the Berroco site!
Knitted toys are a good option—beloved favorites that could easily become cherished keepsakes as children grow up. Or I may just surprise everyone by going back to the craft I learned first and crochet a blanket. This one, called Butterfly Blanket, was inspired by a depression era quilt made from old dresses and flour sacks.
To learn more about the inspiration behind the Comfort Baby book, check out the gorgeous video Amanda and I made together providing a bit of background about the design process.
Even though we featured this about a year ago, I think it’s worth repeating!
Love the butterfly blanket.