Little Miss Sunrise

When I first found out I was pregnant, there was nothing I wanted to do more than knit something for my baby. But the worry wart in me, just couldn't bring myself to start a project. I didn't want to jinx it.

So I waited.

In that time I surfed ravelry constantly favoriting baby patterns like they were going out of style.

But still I waited.

As the weeks went by and I became more comfortable with the pregnancy, I realized I might as well continue waiting until I had my anatomy scan – the sonogram at 20 weeks where they can determine the baby's gender – that way I could knit something appropriate for either a boy or a girl rather than a generic blanket or something of that sort.

So when my anatomy scan came (at 21 weeks instead of 20, oh, it was excruciating waiting that extra week), and we saw that we were having a girl, I immediately knew what I was going to knit for her. I wanted to knit a dress for her first photo, the ones the hospital takes and posts on its website. And it wasn't any of the hundreds of things I spent the last couple months oogling over, but a pattern (the Little Sister Dress - ravelry link) that I first favorited in July 2009 and have been waiting for the perfect baby to knit it for.

I'd finally found my perfect baby.

I had the perfect yarn as well, some beautiful hand dyed bamboo in a gorgeous orange/pink colorway that I picked up in Taos, NM on our road trip last summer. Granted it was currently on the needles, knit almost completely as a shrug for myself, but I was pretty sure I didn't have enough yarn to finish.

So I frogged the shrug and tried to finish another project that I was in the middle of (which I ended up never finishing), and then I finally allowed myself to make something for my dear little Colbie when I was at 30 weeks pregnant. (Yes, she was already Colbie – we'd decided that in the week or so prior to the anatomy scan.) (And yes, it took until 30 weeks for me to really feel like I wouldn't be jinxing the pregnancy by knitting something for the baby, what can I say, I'm very superstitious.)

All hopes of having it finished prior to her June 22 due date went out the window almost immediately when it took me a handful of tries to obtain the proper gauge (the pattern calls for size 2.5 needles, I worked mine on triple zeros), but I went on strong for a couple weeks determined to make it happen.

Then I remembered a little thing.

We hadn't even started to put the nursery together and it was already May and I had grand plans for handmade stuff in there too.

Needless to say, this little dress got put on the back burner for weeks. Mike and I shopped for an outfit for her to wear for her first picture and life went on. And then someone decided to come a week early, so even if I had managed to stay on top of the knitting, it would have been fruitless.

Here we are 6 weeks after Colbie was born and I've finally finished the "dress". I say "dress" because I ended up not having enough yarn to make it a dress, so currently it's a tunic length sweater. And it fits her 6 week old body perfectly…sadly. I was really hoping to make the newborn dress and then transition it into a sweater as she got bigger.

My knit night friends have assured me that with blocking the bamboo will get drapier, so I still have a little hope that she'll be able to wear it longer than this week. This hot, hot, hot week where wearing a sweater, even a short sleeved, non-wool sweater, is ridiculous.

Perhaps I should start shopping for a shadow box frame already. As I've already determined that this will be a little piece of art, that I'll force Colbie to have hanging in her room until she moves out.

Or as Mrs Shoo suggested, I can frog it and knit something else for her with the yarn (that will NOT be happening!).