Pre-China Knitting

In the two months between receiving our referral and leaving for China, I was very busy. Busy with lots of knitting. Too busy to post about it. But now we are in Beijing for a few days before we get our daughter, and I have a few spare moments to show you what I made!

Here is the aran pullover that I started the day after we got our referral, Mission Falls 1824 Wool in a pattern from Knitting for Baby. A beautiful sweater. My mom sewed on the buttons for me, when she was visiting to help us get ready for the baby!

I decided I needed a smaller sweater as well, so I picked some lavender and purple Mission Falls 1824 Wool for this Sweetheart Pullover, also from Knitting for Baby. It only took a week to knit all the pieces for the nine-month size! Then a little longer to sew them together. This sweater came with us to China, and I look forward to posting another photo with a baby in it.

I knit this vine lace scarf in Elsebeth Lavold Wool Silk for Na Fei's foster mother. It will go into a package, along with a letter, some self-addressed envelopes, Canadian sweets, and toiletries--small tokens of our gratitude to the woman who cared for our child for the first months of her life. It was an honour to make this scarf for her, and I hope she likes it.

Here we have two hats and a ball. The red cabled hat is made of Dalegarn Baby Ull (the same yarn I used for Madeline's baby blanket!), and it also came with us to China. The blue and white hat is larger, knit with Araucania Nature Wool. And the ball is felted Patons Classic Merino Wool, at this moment sitting in the diaper bag across the hotel room, ready for a little girl to hold and chew on.

Knitting for My Babe

The morning after Shawn and I saw our daughter's face for the first time, we went to the yarn store. We chose a deep red, soft and cushy aran wool. And after years—decades—of knitting for other people's children, I am finally knitting for my own.

I chose the Aran Pullover from Knitting for Baby by Melanie Falick and Kristin Nicholas, because I love cables, because the wide buttoned neck will be easy to pull over the head of a wriggling 10-month-old, because I can finish it in the short weeks before we travel to China. Already I've finished the back and two sleeves, and the front isn't far behind.

I want to knit closets full of clothes for this girl. I want to make her blankets, socks, warm hats and mittens with strings. I want to welcome her in style. At last, I'm knitting for my babe.