My First BICO & Sold Item!

"BICO" is the acronym for the Baby It's Cold Outside pattern that I discovered on Crochetville. I showed pictures of a few completed BICOs to a co-worker of mine and she asked me to make one for her as a gift for a new baby due in her family around the holidays ... AND offered to pay me!! I graciously accepted her offer. :-) When I was almost finished with the BICO, she asked me if I could add a hat. I got some good hat pattern ideas from Crochetville as well, but ended up using the cap pattern from the Caps to the Capital charity drive I participated in last year. Knowing that the original cap pattern was designed for preemies using a sport- and/or worsted-weight yarn, I used Homespun to match the BICO and also because I knew using a bulky-weight yarn would make the cap come out larger, and therefore suitable for an average sized baby.

Needless to say, selling my work is a dream come true and definitely an area where I want to put more energy and time (once I find it!). This experience has proved to me the level of caring that I put into my work. Having said that, I intend to make more BICOs so that I can improve upon my work with this particular pattern.

As always, thanks for looking!

**Special thanks to my Crochetville community; you all are an invaluable resource for ideas, problem-solving and encouragement!!**

My Latest Baby FOs

It's been a very long time since I've made anything "baby", and I found I was very glad for the opportunity when my oldest nephew had his first child, a darling daughter. Here's what her grandaunt has cranked out for her thus far.

This is a baby robe pattern for the Feb/March '07 issue of Crochet Today. It called for Red Heart Ltd. Cupid yarn and Red Heart Baby Clouds for the border. I couldn't find Cupid anywhere in my area, so I used Lion Brand's Homespun instead. I am usually very "black & white" when following a pattern, so probably for the first time ever, I really went out on a limb" and changed some things. E.g., the sash was supposed to be a sewn on ribbon, but as cute as it was, a flimsy ribbon just didn't seem practical to me so I picked up stitches and crocheted the sash onto the robe out of the Clouds yarn. Also, the Clouds border was only supposed to be worked on the neckline, but I felt like it needed more to give it that real cushy robe look and feel. I hope she'll feel all warm and cozy in it down to her toes.

I made this Woven Ribbons Blanket from a pattern on the Coats & Clark website. It uses Red Heart TLC Baby Amore. This was a lot of fun to make, particularly because of the special Long Double Crochet stitch which gives the pattern a supposed "woven ribbons" look. To me this stitch was like a double crochet spike as it had to be made using spaces created in the 3 or so rows prior to the current row. The border was a lot of fun to make as well. This yarn is nice and cushy and gives the blanket a very secure feeling. I hope this blanket will be a keepsake for years to come.