A Baby's Birthday Gift

As many of you know I am slowly becoming an avid knitter. I've gone from not knowing how to, to spending most of my free time with needles and yarn in my hands in the space of a year. I used to be cool, you know? I used to melt bronze and fight people with fists or swords. And now I knit things. Maybe, I've just ascended 'cool' and become so awesome I can do whatever the damn I like and still pull it off with finesse.

Or maybe there are some things that no matter how much metal and ink you have, will never, ever, be hardcore. But I digress.

Over Summer I had two knitting projects; both gifts (as it happens, I've never actually knitted anything for myself). The first one was for my best friend's new baby; a teeny little matinee coat, which I'll be discussing (read: waffle on about) in this post.

I used a variagated pink, white, lilac and peach wool that my friend picked out; it was the perfect sort of wool for a baby's... Well, anything, really. She knew she was having a girl, hence the rather feminine colour scheme. (There was also a variagated blue, white and green wool, I believe, for boys or girls of a blue-hued persuasion.) I like variagated wool anyway, so I was more than happy to knit with it. I went home and mum found me a pattern (in a charity shop; I think it was 20p) and I didn't show my friend; the design and finished product were not allowed to be seen by her until after the baby had been born.

Close up of of the finished diamond lace.

To the left is an image of the matinee coat about a third of the way through and after the most difficult section. I've never knitted lace before; let me tell you, the dainty pattern on the coat is hands down the most furstrating thing I have ever knitted and I had to repeat it five times. Which doesn't sound like a lot, but the pattern itself was made over eight rows, each of 150 stitches. So that's 7200 stitches of pure rage and anger. The worst thing was, if I missed a stitch or forgot to do an increase/decrease it would throw that entire row's stitches out of whack. The first couple of rows of the lace patterning is, well. A little wonky to say the least. I got the hang of it eventually though, and the rows towards the end of the lace section look really rather girly. It's a start though; it may not have been the neatest lace to begin with, but it does mean I am better prepared for any later lace projects. The distress and difficulty of it was actually quite enriching; I'd grown a little complacent and was starting to see myself as a pretty good knitter. The lace helped me realise I still have things to learn; I still have knitting challenges to face. And, actually, I enjoy a good challenge, knitted or otherwise. The rest of the coat was knitted in moss stitch.

In total I spent a little over a month knitting this, although it then took me another three weeks to actually get around to sewing it together. Unlike the first baby's jumper I had knitted that was in several parts, this pattern was essentially one piece, with the only sleeves knitted seperately. Sewing only took a couple of hours; the reason I left it so late was that my friend went into hospital early to have the baby, which spurred me on to finish knitting. However, this was a false alarm, so I figured I would leave the sewing until I knew she had gone in to labour as I had other knitting projects to concentrate on. If anyone is interested, the baby (Keira) was born on the 21st of September, the day before her due date, at 2:17pm. As I was leaving for university, I did have to sew up the matinee coat on the 20th. My friend was desperate to open the present, but I told her that it was not for her to open. I think that's the real reason the baby arrived when she did; what child doesn't want to open their presents RIGHT NOW THIS VERY SECOND?

The coat was meant to have a crocheted neckline, so I sort of vaguely taught myself to crochet over the course of knitting it. However, I can only really crochet a chain. That's about it. I was no where near good enough by the time it was due to give the coat away so I decided it was best to leave it. I didn't want to accidentally, last minute, ruin something I'd spent a lot of time and effort on. It was also meant to have three buttons on the front, but, despite following the pattern, I somehow missed out the third button hole (actually, I think it's there, it's just in the lace rather than the border). The buttons were some mum already had, but I think they went perfectly with the finished coat.
 

The finished product.

 

From the back.

If anyone is interested, a few quick facts regarding the coat. Just under 100g of double knit wool went into the coat. The lace was knitted on 4.5mm (UK 7) needles, the body and majority of the sleeves on 3.75mm (UK 9) needles and the sleeve cuffs on 3.25mm (UK 10) needles. The pattern was Sirdar c3284, knitted in the smallest size (46cm).