theraineysisters knitting and so much more

My youngest daughter has a friend who has spent a lot of time in our neighborhood because her grandparents live here.  Well, daughter’s friend is now a proud big sister to a beautiful little sister — born about a week ago.  The wee one is so tiny and so perfectly gorgeous, she melted my cold and bitter heart into a puddle.  I had to take up the knitting needles to mark the occasion!

Loads of people have made the Saartje Booties — they are darling and easy and the pattern is free.  This became the perfect excuse to try out the pattern.  I already had the pdf, but also “googled” Ravelry to check it out.  Fleegle had done some major modifications to the pattern, removing seams, lots of ends, and adding her own brand of genius to an already ingenius pattern. 

Armed with the free Fleegle pattern and lovely yarn from my stash, I whipped up these lil cuties in an evening.  I now have to buy buttons, but with gas at $4 per G, I opted to wait until I could double up on my errands.  I would make these many times over — the pattern is great, the booties are darling, and the investment is small. 

The yarn I used is a hand-me-over from Surly.  I believe she got it at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival a couple of years ago.  It was not labelled at all, but looked liked single-ply, handpainted silk in a worsted weight.  I used a US 6 needle.  These booties can be large or small depending on the yarn used — mine are kind of on the big side, but babies are known to grow…a lot!

Okay, this yarn and the cute booties inspired me.  As you know, my oldest is a (very) recent HS grad so there SHOULD BE NO GRANDCHILDREN FOR ME on the horizon — I’m serious about that….don’t even THINK about it!  Anyway, I thought I should make another classic: the EZ Baby Surprise.  I believe that every single knitter on earth is required to make a BSJ (BSJ = Baby Surprise Jacket) before they die. 

So, I am starting one in the same yarn to be finished on a slow timeline.  It’s just for fun.  I will save it for one of my own grandchildren OR I have a couple of close friends with adult daughters who may be in line for a special gift like this sometime soon.  But this yarn is so nice……I may be forced to save it for my grandbabies!