Birthday Ripples

Last year on my birthday, I posted the pattern for the Cupcake bib. I thought it was great fun giving everyone else a present on my birthday, so I just decided to do it again this year. This pattern is a departure from my usual "picture" bibs, but I rather like it.

I love those balls of cotton yarn with the wide stripes that Sugar'n Cream came out with a few years ago, but it was hard to find a pattern that made good use of the stripes. The idea for this bib came to me as I was supposed to be getting ready for a wedding. Instead, I remember secretly knitting a swatch upstairs while my husband paced downstairs and wondered what was taking me so long to get ready. (For the record, we did arrive on time!)

You really will need to use two balls to have it come out with matching shoulders and, most likely, you'll need to sacrifice some yarn. If this goes against your grain, then this bib isn't for you! Of course, you could always knit it in a solid or variegated yarn, in which case you'll only need one ball. Fortunately, it's not that expensive and you can always use the leftovers for something else.....coasters or crochet a chain to use for packages instead of ribbon, etc.

Isn't it neat how the colors just change with the pattern? This bib below was the prototype and I was able to do it with only one ball. However, I had to cut the yarn at the top and fiddle with the colors to make it symmetrical. Even with all of that, you can see that one tie did change color on me. I found that it really was so much easier to just use two balls and avoid all that cutting and weaving in ends. It's always hard to do that anyway with the heavy cotton.

Since I really didn't intend for this to be a dishcloth, I haven't done a separate pattern for one; instead I've included directions with the bib to make a cloth, just to keep everyone happy!

The pdf file isn't up yet, but it will be in a day or so. I can't remember how to upload them to my new website and my "tech support" is unreachable today. (Boy, I really miss having a brain that works and can actually retain information. Suppose age has anything to do with it??!! )

Hope you enjoy my birthday present! Now, is there any cake?