The next several posts (except for a big one coming on Tuesday), I’m just going to catch up with FOs from the past few months, in no particular order, just as they occur to me. So there.

If you know me in real life, or if you’ve read this blog for any length of time, then you probably know that it’s that I wouldn’t mind another baby. Okay, “wouldn’t mind” is a huge understatement. I would lovelovelove to have another baby, but y’all, it’s not going to happen. I have been told in no uncertain terms that another baby would first and foremost require another husband. So yeah, since I’m pretty much madly in love with the husband I’ve got, I guess I’m done with the gotta-have-another-one business.

Which doesn’t stop the old babylust from kicking into gear occasionally. My Old Man practically groans when he sees me hard at work on a baby gift, because he knows what’s running through my head while I work.

Our fabulous Administrative Assistant had her first child in May, so I took it as an opportunity to make my very first Baby Surprise Jacket. (Just by the by, if I ever did have an “oops” baby, do you know what his/her name would be on this blog? S/he would be Baby Surprise. Isn’t that cute? And isn’t that sick, that I’ve already given a blog name to my fictitious never-to-exist baby? Ah, I never claimed to be, you know, stable or anything.)

Okay, okay, enough with the revealing too many bits of my twisted psyche. Let’s just get to the baby stuff already.

pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket, Elizabeth Zimmermann, Knitter’s Workshop
yarn: Lorna’s Laces, Shepherd Sport Multi, in green apple (colorway exclusive to Angelika’s)
needles: KP Options, size 3
cast on: April 5
finished: April 12
size: 3 months? I have no idea.
notions: adorable square lime-green buttons from JoAnn’s
mods: I don’t mess with perfection
verdict: I could not love this knit more. I was iffy on the colorway at first, but I grew to love it. The colors were soft and spring-ish without being overly pastel.

I think the sweater alone makes a perfect and adorable (not to mention quick!) baby gift. But I really wanted to do a whole little set, and I had just enough yarn left to make either a hat or booties. I went with the sweet little garter stitch Oscar booties.

pattern: Oscar
yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport Multi, in green apple, from Angelika’s
needle: KP Options, size 0
size: 3 months?
cast on: April 15
finish: April 19
mods: none, though I went with the ribbon-tie option instead of an i-cord or crochet tie
verdict: Is there anything sweeter than a baby bootie? These were so quick, so easy, so fun, and most of all just totally freakin’ adorable. I think this may be my go-to booty pattern in the future. And it looked so sweet with the sweater.

The only thing I will do differently next time is to make a crochet tie instead of using the ribbon. I did a little i-cord tie with these to begin with, and I wasn’t crazy about it. But afterwards, I thought these would look sweeter with some sort of knit or crochet tie, instead of a ribbon one.

But they are still pretty stinkin’ cute, if I do say so myself.

To round out the set, I made a Scalloped Baby Blanket, from Bend-the-Rules Sewing, only I made it without scallops this time. I just didn’t have the time to do those right, and I thought a square blanket would go well with the modular jacket.

It was very hard to get a good picture of this, and honestly a picture of a square unembellished blanket is a little boring. But here you can see the two sides of it.

I would highly recommend this pattern, with or without scallops, but especially without scallops if time is an issue. I can’t remember how quickly it came together, but pretty quickly (especially compared with a knit baby blanket which I may never do again!).

All in all, I was very pleased with how the set turned out and I will probably be doing variations of this in the future. For other people’s babies. Because even though My Old Man was unusually taken with the little booties I made, they did not sway him in the least!