Knittiquette question.

Well, two babies in one day. At nine-fifteen yesterday morning, my great-niece arrived. Holy crap, I have eleven great-nieces and nephews? And another one coming in February? I'm thirty-three! Anyway, said baby arrived safe and sound and weighing in at five pounds, twelve ounces. At noon, my sister's best friend had her baby, which was nearly two months early and weighed just over three pounds.

Here's the problem. What does one knit for a baby when it's almost guaranteed that the gift will be tossed out? You know what I mean. Much as I would like to tell Lady Voldemort AND her daughter what they can do with rolling donuts, somebody has to take the high road. Do I figure that it won't be used and therefore employ cheap materials and shoddy workmanship, opening myself up to a ration of, "Well look at this piece of crap"? Do I make something worthy of a new baby and use soft wool or cotton and a marvelous pattern, knowing that my hard work is gonna be canned? Do I take the low road and ignore the entire situation?

Knitting for the preemie is a no-brainer. Hard to find clothes that tiny, so caps, sweaters and booties are all lined up. Merino or softest cotton, don't you think? Maybe a few in brushed acrylic for everyday wear. I found a great pattern for a neck down, seamless sweater. If I pick up the sleeve stitches just right, I don't even have any underarm seams to close! Where's that link...? http://www.bbc.co.uk There. Go to this site and type "seamless neck down cardigan" in the search box. It's a beautiful little pattern. I used baby weight yarn and US size 3 or 4 needles to get a preemie size for another three-pounder I heard about. Never heard so many squeals in my life! "AW, it''s so CUTE! Such a TINY sweater!" Thank you, now please bring me a patch for my eardrum.

Speaking of eardrums, history is about to be made. My dad and I are going to sing together in church for the first time ever. Dad is making noises about building insurance and structural integrity, but I've promised him that the roof is most likely NOT going to fall in. The local station is supposed to be setting up a live remote, but we'll see. That plan fell through last time. Got three favorites lined up: Life's Railway To Heaven, Far Side Banks Of Jordan, and Keep On the Sunny Side. I think we'll dedicate that last one to Himself's mom. She had a pacemaker put in yesterday and is doing well. Tired, but her voice is strong and she's much more cheerful. Such a relief! I told her about all of the nice comments from everyone (minus the advice about Lady V, of course), and she says thank you and hugs to all.

That goes double for me! One thing I really like about this online world, you don't have to be face-to-face in order to see eye-to-eye. Have a great day, everybody.