Knitting for a friend's baby- Would you use this?

[chickenhawk]

A friend from my old knitting group is having a baby, and I'd really like to knit her something. There's a pattern for an adorable snuggle sack with adorable matching hats on Purl Bee. I lurve it from an 'I-want-to-knit-this' standpoint, but I have no idea if it'll be useful and desirable from a parent's or baby's standpoint. Kiddo is due to arrive in November, and it'll likely be cold until at least March where they live. What do you think?

I read a couple older threads about knitting for babies and what new parents actually need- I'd also be into making a stuffed toy or little sweater (sounds like it's easy to have too many blankets), but I haven't found any sweater patterns in particular that I'm really jazzed about. If you have any other awesome pattern recs, particularly things that are more challenging construction-wise, I'd love to see them!

[meexie]

Yes - it's a great way to be able to quickly pop baby into something warm and cute, and it will fit for at least a few months.
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[Nemesis]

I love it...except for the hood part. But then again, I'm uber paranoid about SIDS. Newborns aren't able to turn their faces away from things, especially in their sleep, and I'd worry the hood would cover their nose/mouth. Could the patten be altered to not have a hood? Like so? toque takes the place of the hood in terms of warmth.

I actually wish I had a sleep sack, so easy to use! Right now, my wee one wakes up sometimes when I put him down to sleep because his bed is colder than my arms. If I had a sleep sack, it would be the same temperature as he is and he wouldn't be covered up with chilly blankets.

ETA: Receiving handmade baby stuff is WAY better than receiving bought items (although all gifts are appreciated, of course). I treasure the baby quilt someone made me. Googling knitted sleep sacks makes me wish I knew more people who knit!! Ok, except for this which is slightly creepy.
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[cake]

These sacks are super cute and make for really cute pictures but they're (IMO) not super practical because (due to the SIDS/suffocation risk) you shouldn't put a baby in one to sleep unattended. ETA: Just saw the actual pattern- never mind, that kind of sleep sack with the zipper would be fine. I was thinking of something else. But I would still lose the hood.

That said, I think you should definitely make it if you want to- I guarantee it will be well received (hand knits for baby= always awesome, unless your heart is made of stone!) and when you have a newborn there's a lot of "holding/staring at your sleeping baby on the couch" time that a sleep sack would be perfect for.
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[delqc]

Like others I would never use it with the hood, never ever ever, due to the SIDS risk.

We were given polar fleece sleep sacks made by a friend and I tried them once and my kid (also born in November) got all sweaty and we never used them again. Most houses stay in comfortable temperatures and a sleeper is generally enough to keep baby warm. Sleep sacks overheated my kiddos. But I have a friend (the friend who made me the sleep sacks, ha ha) who used them religiously for both kids - but she lives in an old farmhouse, who knows, maybe her house is drafty. It's really very personal. And each baby has their own preferences.

Make sure whatever you knit for baby is washable is my only recommendation. Baby will surely puke on it every wear so if you want it to be worn it has to be washable. Stuffed animals are very cute and totally useless IMHO since baby can't have them in his/her crib and my kids never wanted a thing to do with stuffed animals, plus they are hard to wash. The knitted things I used for my kids were sweaters and blankets and snow-suit type thingys which were great for cool-but-not-frigid weather.

Neither of my kids had a hand-knitted blanket and I would have loved one. M did get a simple handmade blanket from a friend I met through glitter - flannel one side, cotton the other - and she STILL uses it as her preferred daycare blanket, so that was awesome. Hope the creator reads this!!!
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[snoopy]

We received one snuggle sack for Yoshi when she was a baby and we used it all the time. It was the best. I'm not sure why we didn't buy more. I would have loved to receive a handknit one, especially that Purl Bee pattern.

I agree to make it sans hood using a machine washable yarn.
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[cmightym]

i would use that so much that i'm just going to greedily assume that you're making it for me. it's adorable and useful and awesome.

i'd use the hood, but then we live on the edge.

xo
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[chickenhawk]

Thanks for the input everybody! I figured it was more of a going-outside garment than a sleep sack, but now that I know what a sleep sack is, I see what you're saying. It'd be easy enough to leave the hood off, and I'll use machine washable yarn for sure.

On a side note, I spent enough time looking at photos of babies wearing knit things yesterday to have some reeeally weird dreams in which I had my own baby. Yikes. Alas, my dream baby wasn't wearing cute knit things at all.

[delqc]

[Athos]

I LOVE that pattern (and generally everything from the Purl Bee!), but I personally would not have found it useful. We swaddled our baby at night only in something that was very secure with velcro and wouldn't move around to do suffocation/SIDS fears. Very quickly, within a few weeks, she preferred having her arms free outside of the swaddle. So something that just zipped up to her chin would not have been useful.

I am expecting a baby in November, and this is the type of hand made sleep sack I think I will make:
http://knitty.com/ISSUEsummer07/PATTzodiac.html

Space for arms, room for customization (if you are on Ravelry you can take a look at some of the cool patterns folks have added to this).

I received two handmade hats for the baby (the Pixie Hat pattern from Vintage Baby Knits and the Umbilical Cord pattern from Stitch and Bitch), which I LOVED and she wore constantly- neither were machine wash, but the moms knew I can take care of super soft wool. ;)

If you do want to make a toy, there is a great pattern in Last Minute Knitted Gifts (by the Purl Soho folks) for a stuffed bear/rabbit/elephant.

The Expectant Knitter has a FABULOUS set of baby pants/leggings and a sweater. Done in a lovely superwash.

The Vintage Baby Knits book has an incredible set, short pants (could be made long) and a cardigan featuring a cat in intarsia - very challenging, but looks incredible. Oh, and also a fair isle baby bonnet that looks fabulous for a winter baby.

I just realized I'm giving you MY wish list for advanced baby knitting. ;) Is there more you can tell us? What kind of taste does the mom to be have? What colors? Styles?

And Delqc, you cannot possibly mean me, can you?? It was so long ago! Regardless, how nice that a simple blanket is still useful to M!