Dante's layette

In a few months a couple will descend from a plane for the holidays here in New York and after a handful of weeks they'll board another to return to their new home in Italy. Only on the flight back across the Atlantic they'll be a trio, instead of a duo.

Rather than welcome their firstborn child on their new-found expat soil, they've decided to come home and birth (another!) American. Lucky for me, as things are a bit too crazy at the moment for me to jet there for the wee one's arrival and baptism (that's right, you're looking at a first time godmother here!).

I'm sure it will be surreal when the day comes for R and me to grow our own little family, but for now, I can't imagine anything more surreal than someone I grew up with creating another little someone.

The pops is a bit of a professorial sort: academic, studious, down in the weeds when it comes to history, a penchant for pontificating—all of which make him an excellent lawyer. And, all of which helped me decide to make a collegiate cardigan for his newborn son, instead of a baby blanket or onesie.

It's probably also why in my head (and on my Ravelry project page), I've been referring to this set of handknit goodies for the babe as Dante's Cardigan, Hat, & Booties.

When picking out colors I was dead-set against anything blue (I like to be unexpected, plus my mom was whipping up her own blue set), nor did I want to use burgundy (as suggested to me by the father-to-be—?!). But, a creamy white and soft heather gray seemed the perfect combination for this winter baby boy.

As usual when it comes to me creating wearable knits, this too required a reboot. I suppose I approach every area of my life: from cooking, to falling in love, to knitting, in the same way. Jump in and adjust later. Which is odd, given how much of a planner and organizational nutcase I am. But then again, I am an impatient gal, too. So, quite the combination, indeed. And, to be fair, I did plan this out—I just planned pretty poorly.

The pattern for this was for a newborn, but I wanted this to last my little godson his whole first winter, so I purposely knit it bigger. Only thing is, my calculations were a bit off and the shoulders looked like a Meg Ryan blazer from the 80's. But being stubborn, I thought I could just even it all out at the end, so I kept knitting. Once I bound off the last stitch, it of course still looked just as wonky as it did at the beginning. As R watched in horror, I ripped the whole thing apart and started over. The idea of gifting something that I wasn't 100% proud of was worse to me than the idea of redoing the cardigan.

So, back to Row 1, this time with newly calculated measurements. Much better.

Thankfully the hat and booties were good to go after the first attempt. Here's hoping it all fits him—and that he, and his parents, approve!