FO Friday: Quick Baby Knits in Winter Silk

I know this isn't the first time I've mentioned it, but it really seems like everyone I know is expecting a baby in the next 6 months. Seriously, I am starting to lose track - or rather, I would, if I didn't keep a running list in Trello. At any rate, when I was sent skein of Winter Silk yarn from Mountain Colors to try out (yes, it was free!) I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get started on my ever-growing queue of baby gifts.

Mountain Colors Mountain Silk yarn in Harmony Cottonwood

The colorway is the perfect kind of non-gender-specific colorway I love to use for baby knits; I figure, if they know whether or not they'll be having a boy or a girl ahead of time, they'll be drowning in blue or pink. As for the yarn itself, it's a 50/50 blend of wool and silk with a lovely hand; very soft with just enough drape. Though it isn't superwash (something I try to take into consideration when knitting for new parents), I still think it's a great choice - even babies deserve a little luxury!

My Barley hat by Tincanknits

I started off by knitting the Barley hat from Tincanknits, which is available for free on Ravelry. It was a rather quick project - from cast on to bind off, I don't even think this was on my needles for more than 24 hours!

With variegated yarns, it's always a gamble as to how they'll knit up. I was really pleased with how the colors looked in the finished hat - no crazy pooling here!

My Dreamy Baby Booties by Veronica Van

I had plenty of yarn left, so I decided to make a pair of matching booties, and found another free pattern on Ravelry, the Dreamy Baby Booties by Veronica Van. This was another quick project which I made in just three days' time, and somehow both booties match almost exactly - that's through virtually no effort on my part, might I add. Somehow it just worked out that way!

I really enjoyed giving this yarn a try; it was easy to work with and I was impressed with how the plies didn't split, even when I was picking up stitches or grafting the bottom of the booties together. Here's another bonus: I still have a pretty good amount of yarn left over! Each skein has 200 yards, and I'd estimate that I have about 80 yards left to work with - I'm hoping that's enough for a small toy! Many thanks to the folks at Mountain Colors yarn for sending this skein my way!

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