Sunshine with a chance of Cloudette

A little dirt and sunshine

This is the fastest project I have ever knit. In fact, I finished so quickly, Little Knotty couldn't wait to try it on -- so in this picture, it hasn't yet been blocked (that's why the sleeves are curled under a bit). After this picture was taken, Little Knotty covered herself in dirt. I washed it and it blocked easily overnight.

Little Knotty picked out this yarn herself. The colors are Firefly and Ice Cream, by Spud and Chloe. I think she looks like a little burst of sunshine -- which fits her personality quite well.

Recently, we had some storms come through at night. The thunder and lightening put a bit of a scare into Little Knotty. But I found the perfect book to alleviate her fears: Cloudette by Tom Lichtenheld. It's a story about a small cloud who learns to make a big difference. We've read it a few times and, the last time some thunder rolled through, Little Knotty called to her daddy, "It's Cloudette! And her big mommy!" No tears, no worried-face, just smiles. Thank you, Mr. Lichtenheld.

Perfect reaction

This is why nearly all my knitting time goes to projects for this kid -- have you ever seen such a smile? Awesome. After all that work, that's exactly what a knitter wants to see.

The pattern is my take on the Blue Sky Alpacas Eyelet Baby Blanket. As you can see, there are no eyelets (except in the ruffle) and it is quite a bit bigger than a baby blanket -- it's toddler-bed size in fact. BabyKnotty has outgrown all her lovely hand-knitted baby blankets. She proved it to me one day by pulling her blankets up to her chin and urgently stating "See? See?" as she wiggled her calves, ankles and little feet, all of which were quite clearly sticking out in a most un-baby like fashion.

So we bought out all the Manos del Uruguay Maxima from my LYS, and my sister picked up two more skeins for me from a LYS in Austin.

I followed the stitch count for the Blue Sky pattern but used circular US size 11 needles -- this was after a lot of experimenting to see what would make the proper width for a toddler bed. I skipped the eyelets because I remember the discomfort of attempting to keep myself warm with an eyelet blanket while watching Saturday morning cartoons during the early 80s -- back when there were Saturday morning cartoons and I was young enough to want to get up and watch them. The eyelets always left little open circles of chilly, no matter how I twisted the blanket around. I figured if I was going to make a blanket this size, I wanted it to be functional for many chilly mornings for years to come. So no eyelets. And then I just kept knitting the length of the blanket until it reached 51 inches -- toddler bed length. The ruffles were a snap -- so easy and they knit up really quickly. That colorway is Meltaway Mints -- I ended up with one skein plus a little extra. I think it will be a hat and mittens set for her in the fall.

Next up -- a lot of dresses, skirts and tops using Oliver + S patterns, some Lisette dresses and a bag for me and this little dress using Spud and Chloe in firefly and ice cream (yellow and white).