A Coat for Baby

 The year my husband and I started dating, his roommate was a guy named "Slobe".  That was not his first name, but it was what everyone called him (and we still do, 20 years later.)  He put up with us always being in the dorm room making kissy faces at each other.  He never complained when the three of us would have slumber parties together.  My favorite memory of him at college was the day I was complaining about an ugly, octagonal, circa 1970's-style, marble-topped end table that the two of them had rescued from the trash someone had set out at their curb.  I was joking that we could never move in together if that awful table was part of the package he came with.  Slobe, freshly entering the room from the shower with just a towel around his waist, leapt on top of the table with the intent of doing a silly dance, but instead of that happening, the top of the table cracked and he came crashing down.  Luckily, it appeared that he had planned ahead, and he was wearing shorts under the towel.  That's our Slobe, always cracking jokes, but in the most practical way possible.

Anyway, for quite a while after college, Slobe didn't find the right Mrs. Slobe.  Then, during one of his yearly visits at our house, he mentioned a woman from his church who had told him that the two of them should get together to plan things for their "young singles" group.

My husband and I are a couple of busy-bodies, so of course we immediately shook him down to get every detail we could about this woman.  He answered our questions, but insisted that this woman was not interested in him.  "Slobe," I remember one of us saying to him. "If a woman is suggesting that the two of you meet BY YOURSELVES to 'make plans' for your group, it means she wants to be alone with you and get to know you better.  Ask this woman out!"

And by golly, he did.  And they hit it off so well that the next year when he visited us, he brought her along.  And she's the kind of person who just jumps right in with people she doesn't know and within 30 minutes you're discussing birth control and telling her every funny story you can think of that involves the man she's dating.

So of course we were thrilled when they got married, and we were happy that they included my husband to be a groomsman, asked me to play piano, and let our 6-year-old daughter be their flower girl.  We were happier yet a couple years ago when they had a little girl.  I knitted her a little cardigan sweater and hat set that you can see here.

Mrs. Slobe proved herself to be quite knit-worthy, taking good care of the hand knits I made for their daughter and giving me far more compliments than she needed to.  So I wanted to top myself when I made a gift for baby number 2.

They didn't find out the sex before the birth, but I was about 75% sure that it was a girl.  I'm glad I didn't follow my instincts and make something pink or frilly, because, as it turns out, baby was a boy!

I finished up the Latte Baby Coat in less than a week, although it took me twice as long to get my butt to JoAnns and pick out buttons.

All in all, a very quick, fun project and a very cute result.

Details are here on my Ravelry project page