Ruffled

A couple of weeks ago I found myself in the craft store (no idea how I got there - must've blacked out from the wool fumes).  Naturally I went over to the yarn area.  My fascination with cheap and widely-available yarns must be fed from time to time, after all.  On a table next to the Cascade yarns was this little gem:

Always a sucker for the Smally Clothes, I casually snatched it up.  I flipped all the way to project number 7 before remembering that I MADE A DESIGN FOR THIS BOOK:

Talk about surreal!  This publisher is really great about sending copies of the book to all its contributors, but this time I hadn't received mine before it hit stores.  In the mayhem surrounding publication of my own book, I completely forgot having a design in this one.  It was such a strange sensation to be standing in the craft store, holding a copy of the design, with near total amnesia surrounding it.  I always laugh when people ask me how I get so many pieces knit.  I never feel all that productive, never mind prolific.  But this hinted to me about what those people must mean:  It was like forgetting exactly how many children you have.  Not a little disturbing.  I felt, well, ruffled.

Smally clothes are the most fun to design, because I can be as silly and whimsical as I want.  You can make babies wear anything, because they have trouble getting away. 

When Lindsay was little (you know, like 11 minutes ago?), Phillip and I used to dress her in those tights with the lace ruffles on the butt under her little baby dresses.  We would put her down and let her crawl around every chance we got when she was dressed like that, so we could wink at each other and say "Bottoms Up!".  It was our sleep-deprivation-induced hilarious inside joke.  "Ha-Ha'" we would say, "Ruffle-Butt!"  It tickled us to death.  Getting to watch baby LuLu scoot around with her ruffles akimbo was adequate payback for the sleepless nights and days of exhaustion (punctuated by moments of panic) that was new parenthood.

I wish Lindsay had had these pants.  Hell, I might make her some yet.  Bottoms Up!