I’ve been meaning to share two knitting projects I made over the winter. (See that hail in the background in one of the pictures above?) My friend’s girls have winter birthdays close together and I wanted to make something special for each of them. For the youngest sister, I knit the Springtime Vest from the book Sweet Pickles. I had been admiring that pattern on Ravelry for so long (it’s listed on Ravelry as the Plain Vest/Enkel Vest) and wanted to get that book specifically for that pattern. The Springtime Vest was such an enjoyable knit! I adore it and want to knit another one because I love it so much. (Adult size please! Wouldn’t that be wonderful?)

The yarn is handspun from Hungry Hill Farm. (They’ve sold their yarn at fiber festivals with us in the past, but don’t currently have any yarn for sale online.) When deciding which buttons to sew on, I held up a bunch of different buttons to the finished vest, and ended up falling in love with two buttons Jeff had made in western red cedar. I’ve been really loving the buttons in red cedar paired with purple yarn lately. The buttons were larger than the pattern called for, but they fit through the buttonholes just fine and I loved the way that size looked on the finished vest. I modified the pattern by shortening it just a bit because I was afraid I was going to run out of yarn. (Ravelry notes here.)

On the gift-giving day it was cold out (to warrant handknits, yay!) and I’m happy to report that when my friend tried it on over that sweet girl’s zip up hoodie, it fit great! That means there’s some growing room and layers can be worn underneath, which is wonderful!

For the oldest sister, I knit a hat. I had already knit her a little sweater for her birthday the year before and since she had fallen in love with one of Bracken’s elf hats one day, I kept that thought in mind for her upcoming birthday, knowing I would knit her an elf style hat of her own when the time came. (I made the pattern up and either didn’t write down what I did or lost the notes, so I don’t have any Ravelry notes to share about what I did.) The purple yarn is handspun from the same source as her sister’s sweater above, and the bits of blue were leftover from another project. I love knitting hats for gifts and the elf style is just so adorable.

And? It fits! With plenty of room to grow. She didn’t feel like wearing a hat that day when we all emerged from our vehicles to play at the park for awhile, but it was cold enough outside to be a good day for one. When she opened her present though, and saw the hat made specially for her, she quickly changed her mind and was delighted to wear a hat after all. As I’ve said many times before, I love knitting gifts and I love knitting for little ones. When what I make fits well, I’m pleased. But when their sweet little eyes light up and they love what I make them? It fills my heart to bursting, I tell you.