A Gift for Elizabeth the Sequel

I have a new niece (unofficial, but BFF babies count, right?) and given that she is an Elizabeth/EJ, it is difficult to refer to her in this house without confusion.  Hence, she has been dubbed "EJ the Sequel" by EJ the first.  At any rate, I set to work on a handmade gift for her this Spring, but she wasn't due to arrive until early July, so I got behind when summer vacation arrived.  Well, she arrived super early (5 weeks early) and my gift ended up being super late (actually 5 weeks past her due date, so I have no excuse)!  Hopefully they still love me.

I started with the tiny little mary jane shoes which I absolutely adore.  Something about tiny baby shoes...big "ohh, ahh" factor there, right?  I pinned this pattern from Whistle & Ivy ages ago and knew I was going to make them as soon as Julie told me to expect a girl.  I made Elizabeth's brother, Mikey, his own set of baby shoes, so she needed some as well.  They were super easy to make and I love their tiny size.

Next up was the blanket.  I wanted to make something pretty, but also durable.  I wanted it to be useful now (and beautiful), but also something that could grow into a kid's favorite blanket.  Basically, I over-thought it and wasted lots of my time (shocker, right?).  Take one (left) was too intricate & putsy (squares to attach as you go) and take two (right) was beautiful but super heavy.  It felt all wrong for a summer baby.

In the end, I went back to a pattern I had bookmarked on the Lion Brand Yarn years ago.  It seemed perfect as it is named Little Girls' Favorite Throw.  It has a simple repeating pattern that was perfect for me to work on with all three kids home (the perfect thing to keep my hands busy while being read to by EJ).  I love the soft texture (without big gaping holes for little fingers to get caught in) and I added a scallop edging to soften and girlie it up a bit.  It was light, but I liked cuddling up with it while I was working because it's soft and cozy too.

Last up was this little blanket bunny (pattern here).  The bunny was easy to complete.  The blanket seemed off-center, so I restarted it a few times but finally gave up and it ended up just fine.  I guess I should have just trusted the pattern.  I also worried that the eyes and nose I added with yarn might be a little more scary, than friendly, but I've been assured otherwise.

I really enjoyed working on this gift.  It was great to do some fun crochet again and I'm dying to start a new project (but my girls have me working on some non-crochet projects first).