baby hat sweatshop

The announcements began trickling in back in November and December, I'd say, when the holidays brought families and friends together. At first the numbers were moderate: my sister-in-law, two friends from school, my best friend Kate. But then came the deluge, and when it was over thirteen of my friends were going to give birth by mid-September.

Without sounding cheap, I hope, I must say that I freaked out at first at the potential cost. Depending on the parents-to-be, the registries can be prohibitively expensive. The diaper champs, the Baby Bjorns (if you don't know what that is yet, don't panic--a pregnant friend will surely fill you in at some point), the myriad bedding and clothing options...for this graduate student, it all seemed like an exercise in savings depletion. The first shower I went to set me back $55.00. At that rate I was looking at $600.00 plus bucks for the entire summer, and I knew I'd spend more that that on my particularly close friends. Couple that with the fact that I don't get paid during the summer and you can perhaps understand my anxiety.

I certainly don't mean to sound dour about my situation. I mean, I was ecstatic that so many women I care about were having babies. But that celebration was always tinged with, "How will I pay for it?" And that's no way to usher in the joyous occasion of new life.

So, I purchased about ten skeins of Artful Yarns "Candy" and went to town. It's been a baby hat summer. I began with some so-so needles and finally made the investment in some Addi-turbos. (For all you non-knitters out there, the "turbo" is for real--they're super slick and fast!)

Here's the first hat I made:


Pretty cute. And relatively simple. A hat plus a book for baby made a fun, affordable (for me) gift. And for a while I was a machine, cranking out a hat per shower in no time at all. But then I started to expand my repetoire. I wanted to make a couple of my friends a sweater to go with the hat. I began with the same "Candy" yarn for two, and those sweaters turned out really well. I mean, they weren't perfect, but that's what "homemade" means, right? The Candy yarn has a little elastic in it, so it's very forgiving.

Then I asked a friend to give me some suggestions for a color and she chose solid blue. Well, there's no solid blue "Candy," so I went to regular cotton. So much harder. But here's the result:


Check the buttons:


When my friend Kate gave birth on Sept. 5, she was the last of the thirteen. I thought my stint as mad-baby-hat-knitter was over. I ordered myself some Cash Iroha to make the Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts and dreamed of finishing one of my shawls.

On Saturday, I received an invitation to another baby shower. So, back to the sweatshop I go...