Rainbows, rainbows, everywhere

After I'd finished the rainbow blanket for my nephew I was left with rather a lot of rainbow yarn and rather than let it sit and wonder what to do with it I wanted to just cover this baby with rainbows.  I'm a massive fan of Mothercare's Little Bird collection and I know my SIL is too so I was really aiming for that sort of vibe when I was planning these projects.

A short flick through my Ravelry faves served up Short Notice and Bug Warmer by Taiga Hilliard.  These patterns are the perfect blank canvas for stripes and looked quick and simple.  I wanted to use neutralish background colours with a single rainbow splashed across the chest and I think it's worked really well.

My first project was a Short Notice in Grey.  I actually started it while I was waiting for the extra yarn for the border of Alfred's blanket but as I had some grey DROPS Paris in the stash I decided to get going on this in the meantime.  I only had one ball of the grey and I wasn't sure how far it would go, but I set out by knitting a 2 row stripe of each of the rainbow colours to see where I'd end up.  As I was nearing the end of the body it became quite clear that I wasn't quite going to have enough so I ripped back and switched to 3 row stripes instead.  I still only had enough for short sleeves but I was glad to have used the yarn up as it had been in the stash for a while!  I did much prefer the look of the smaller stripes, but this still turned out cute and it meant that I didn't end up with all of the ends on one side.

I chose little rainbow buttons because you can never have enough rainbows!

Next up, Bug Warmer.  I'd chosen this turquoise for a sort of sky effect and I was tempted to add some white clouds around the hem and cuffs, but ultimately I couldn't be bothered, so I didn't!  I used DROPS Loves You 5 for this, along with the rainbow Paris scraps.  This was an even quicker knit than Short Notice due to the open front and is a perfect pattern if you need an near instant baby gift.  I had plenty of yarn this time so I did full length sleeves.  Cute huh?

After that I had a quick break from cardis and rainbows and knit a little Julian vest in yellow DROPS Paris.  I'd knit one of these in grey for Alice and it had been very well received.  I knew that one was all washed and ready for the new baby to wear so I made this one in 3 month size for when he grows out of the grey one.  I love this pattern, I've knitted it three times and I'll probably keep knitting them for any babies that cross my path, it's just adorable.

And last but not least, another Short Notice in white to match the blanket.  I actually cast on for this one as soon as I'd heard that Alfred had arrived.  At just under the 10lb mark I figured that he might be needing bigger clothes sooner rather than later so I thought I'd quickly whip up one of these in the 3 month size too.

This one has slightly different rainbow buttons, but still rainbows because apparently I can't help myself (and I seem to have loads in my button tin) and I think they look super.

So all in all I have made a great big pile of rainbows and I couldn't be happier with it all.  I will admit that the sheer number of ends I have had to weave in has been a flaming nightmare a little overwhelming but it's totally been worth it.  I still have a fair bit of rainbow yarn left but I'm going to put it aside for the time being and concentrate on solid colours for a bit because I just can't weave in any more ends for a while!