appendix

Actually, there are a few things that I made last year that I simply never got around to blogging about, post baby.

feather and fan bonnet; felt booties; cache-cœur

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: Feather and Fan bonnet by Larissa Brown, available free as a Ravelry download.
Size: only one size, depends on what yarn you use.
Yarn: Rowan Wool Cotton in shade 973 Blue Wash. I had been curious about this yarn for a while and picked up a ball a few weeks back, just for the sake of it really. The bonnet used up a little more than half the skein.
Needles: 4mm.
Start to finish: 28 November 2009 to 4 December 2009.
Comments: I love the feather and fan stitch pattern. It is enjoyable to knit, old-fashioned and still lovely. I am loathe to put ribbons or strings onto babies clothing though so I just did a very short crochet chain which I fixed at the centre back of the bonnet.
Verdict: Love feather and fan but am not sure that a bonnet (apart from looking very precious) is really that useful; I haven't managed to keep it on baby bear's head yet.
Recycle/stash content: none.

The two sewing projects came from a wonderful book, Intemporels pour Bebe, that I bought in Paris when we were there the year before last. The booties are made from wool felt that I purchased for the project at Nancy's Sewing Basket in Queen Anne, here in Seattle (but I would be keen to try them using a felted jumper/sweater). I machine stitched the two uppers together at the front centre seam but hand stitched the sole to the uppers as this was too fiddly given the size (shown are the 0-3 months size, I also made 3-6 and 6-9 at the same time). The buttons came from the same Ann Taylor blazer that I used to trim the Carmine jacket in February last year. Baby bear hasn't worn them yet because, umm, I can't find the pair at the moment ...

And the cache-cœur - I love this little garment. It is made from a felted woollen jumper/sweater that was given to me by a neighbour (already felted). Her husband apparently thought it very strange that she was passing a laundry mishap along to someone but I appreciated it immensely. It was a lovely woollen and a really good weight to sew with. The green ribbon was one that I had in stash. I also made a biscuit-coloured version of this but it is currently recovering from a baby spew incident (aka in the wash).

These were both very simple projects: the full-size patterns were included in the book and the sewing up was straightforward.There was some hand finishing involved but that was my choice. The instructions are all (bien-sur) in French but if you do any crafting from Japanese books then these would be a breeze. And recycled/stash content: quite high - the buttons on the booties and everything for the cache-cœurs.

One more project in the next post ...