I had a serious cute attack last weekend at Mokuba, where I picked up the pink ribbon for this cape. There were so many sweet, frilly options! Now that I’ve finally settled on the finishing touches, I’m ready to wrap this up and send it on its way to my friend Kozue and her baby girl Kaede in Kanagawa.

I used Mission Falls 136 Merino, a nice Canadian option, since Kozue and I met while she was studying in Vancouver and Canada has been close to her heart ever since. Her daughter’s name is actually Japanese for maple.

The pattern is another great one from Kristen Rengren’s Vintage Baby Knits. I can hardly wait to see photos of Kaede in the cape – this has to be one of my favourite baby knits so far!

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I’m a big fan of Kristen Rengren’s Vintage Baby Knits.  These slippers are my second project from the book, and I loved making them just as much as the first.  The pattern is also available as a free download from Melanie Falick Books, along with others from STC Craft books that would make great holiday projects.

I’m particularly aware of my unwieldy stash at the moment, so I resolved not to buy any new yarn for this project. I decided on Mirasol’s Cotanani – the one ball I had ended up being just enough. It’s a nice yarn to work with – the merino blended in makes for a much softer cotton yarn!

I made a couple of modifications to the pattern: I made I-cords for the ankle straps, instead of garter stitch bands; and I made the ears a little bit smaller (CO 5 sts rather than 9), since I used a heavier weight yarn than called for.

How about you, any stash-busting projects to recommend?

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Photo courtesy of Melissa Hames Duarte

First off, how cute is Petra? Here she is, at six weeks old, modelling Cisco.  You may not recognize the hat – it was originally modelled by a ball of yarn and a vase!

Seeing how much cuter the hat looked on a real little person made me think about a more appropriate model for my latest baby knit, the Stella Pixie Hat by Kristen Rengren (available in Vintage Baby Knits and as a free download from STC Craft). I don’t have any baby-sized softies around – my knit animals are too small and Huggy Jesus’ head is too flat.

Chris suggested a small-scale sculpture by Florence Wyle – The Harvester. The perfect size, it turns out. It’s one of the four sculptures in the Loring/Wyle Parkette in Toronto.

You can see the Young Girl, also by Wyle, in the background of this photo. There are busts of Loring and Wyle, each sculpted by the other, at the far end of the parkette. I would have liked to get some photos of them as well but a man was recovering from a hard night on a nearby bench. I thought it best to keep the visit short.

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