Grammy's Bib and Cloth

This pattern has been a long time coming.  I started working on it almost three years ago, but kept putting it aside as life intervened.  My grandchildren are lucky to have two sets of grandparents (at least I think they're lucky!).  My daughter-in-law's parents live on the West Coast and we live on the East Coast.  We don't get together very often, but on the occasion of the birth of our mutual granddaughter, we were able to reconnect.  Kathy, who is affectionately called "Grammy", was working on a beautiful lavender baby blanket for Ruthie. She explained how the pattern had been handed down in her mother-in-law's family.  I thought it was a beautiful pattern and Kathy graciously shared it with me.  There wasn't any need for me to knit a blanket, but I thought it would make a cute bib.

This is a deceptively easy pattern to knit.  You slip stitches and then pick them up on the next row.   The stitches form a very pretty trellis pattern.  While the pattern may be easy to knit, I realized that describing how to execute the stitch was not as easy, so I've included some close up pictures so you can see exactly how to  do it.  (It was tricky to try to hold knitting needles and a camera, but I don't think you'll have any trouble figuring it out!)

Barbara Walker has a variation of this pattern in her blue book, but this is the pattern that's been handed down in my granddaughter's family.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if someday she took up knitting and passed it on to her own grandchild.  

I've also included instructions for knitting a cloth.  I didn't do separate files as you can just print the pages you need to make either the bib or the cloth.

You can easily use variegated colors as well as solids.  Be careful though in choosing your yarn.  I discovered that the design does get somewhat lost in heavily variegated yarns.  Here's an example of one I knit when I was testing the pattern:

It is a little difficult to see the design.  However, in the lilac bib, it shows up much better.

At least I think it does!  The pattern is in the sidebar.  I put it in both the bibs and the cloths.  Click  here for the pdf file.

There is one other little secret detail that I'd like to point out, if you didn't spot it yourself.  Notice how the the very top of the pattern, when combined with the seed stitch, forms little hearts?  I love that detail.  A bib with love included!

I hope you'll enjoy knitting this.  As you can tell, it's a very special pattern for my family and I hope it will be for yours as well.  Thank you Grammy for sharing!