Preemie hat and booties!

One of my dear friends just delivered her tiny baby girl at about 26 weeks.  I knew right away I wanted to knit a hat and booties set for her.  I figure it must be difficult to find something for someone so tiny to wear, and I wanted her to be stylin' just like her mama from the get-go.

I found a few great patterns over at Ravelry, an awesome knitting community, and got to work.  I chose "Michelle's Booties", which were so quick to make (seriously, SO. TINY.)

I love me some variegated yarn.  Also, couldn't resist the felt embellishments!

I knitted the booties while watching the last hour of Cars with The Boy.  And I made the hat during the gift of quiet time that I got last weekend (Mother's day).

Besides wanting little India to have something beautiful to wear in the first days of her life, I wanted to give a knitted gift because there is something really special to me about knitting a gift.  When I knit something, I'm forced to sit in one spot and pay attention to what I'm doing.  Because of that, I am constantly thinking about the recipient as I knit.  I like to think that all of my warm fuzzy thoughts and good wishes get transferred to the recipient when they wear the item I knitted.   I don't know why I get this feeling more with knitting than with other types of crafting--maybe because when repetitively knitting the individual stitches, my thoughts become almost like a mantra for me.  With each stitch, a little love--it's more deliberate, maybe, than a project that has a bunch of different kinds of steps?  Anyway, I don't know, but it does make me feel really good about giving a knitted gift, especially to a little tiny baby.

And, I had to try and give an idea of the scale of these things.  In case you missed it, I cannot get over how little these things are!  They look like doll clothes.

First, the booties next to Little Sister's 13-month-old foot:

Hmmm... this doesn't really seem to do it justice.  Please note that
Little Sister is particularly dainty of foot--she still wears 6 month size shoes.

Now in The Boy's three-year-old hands:

OK, that's a little more like it, I guess...

And I couldn't help myself, although this one may be misleading, since I have giant man-hands:

What?

And finally, the hat, using a three-year-old head for scale:

Is he balancing a cupcake?

So, I can't wait to pass these gifties (and all the love and warm wishes that come with them) on to baby India!  Love to you, girl!