It's been months since I posted, and years since I knit this next item, but for various reasons I never got around to sharing it earlier.
Here's the full story...
Christmas 3 years ago my brother and sister-in-law got me the best present ever... the amazing knitting book Kaffe Knits Again and all the yard needed to knit one of the projects in the book. I was so overwhelmed and grateful for the amazing gift, that I decided that instead of knitting the scarf that they had selected the yarn for, I would knit something from the book for them.
With so many crazy, colourful designs to choose from, it took me a bit, but then I had the perfect idea. There's this pattern for a men's vest, that has houses all over it. The houses are all different colours, but they're very uniform in shape. It's called Houses.
I didn't have quite enough yarn to make it full-sized, and I thought it would look a bit strange on an adult (though this model does look quite dapper). So I decided to size it down for a toddler, as my nephew was just one year old at the time. Then I realized what the Houses reminded me of.
Mr. Plumbean's street! Before the the seagull flew over, of course. If you've never read Daniel Pinkwater's The Big Orange Splot before, you must. It's a fantastic kids book about non-conformity. Mr. Plumbean lives on a neat street, where all the houses look the same, until a seagull drops a can of orange paint on his roof, and Plumbean refuses to clean it off. He says, "My house is me and I am it. My house is where I like to be and it looks like all my dreams."
Anyways, I knit Kaffe Fassett's Houses as a vest for my nephew, adding an orange splot to one of the roofs. I love the way it turned out.