celebrate

a guide to simchahs

JEWELRY

te r

Blankets As Art

t;.•

Personalized keepsakes welcome
new babies home.

Suzanne Chessler

I

Contributing Writer

p

R4

6881 Orchard Lake Rd. on the Boardwalk

(248) 851-5030

o ea

665t

114
2014

•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

THE —11

OF THE

meal

L c- „I,

S

Le

Sheraton°

Detroit Novi

HOTEL

. • • •

•
•

• •
• •
•
•
• •
• •
•

•
•

Sheraton Detroit Novi Hotel

21111 Haggerty Road
Novi, MI 48375

t-248 349 4000

sheratondetroitnovi.com

C 1 4

• •
• •
••

•

• •
• •

Simchas are better when shared

WEDDINGS
MITZVAH
BIRTHDAY
SHOWERS
GRADUATION
RETIREMENT
CORPORATE EVENTS

Newly Renovated Hotel

celebrate! I March 2015

1991860

aula Ceresnie admits to falling
asleep on the job sometimes,
but it's not uncomfortable.
Quite the opposite.
Ceresnie often wakes up with a
cozy, but unfinished, baby blanket on
her lap.
The dozing happens in her West
Bloomfield home, where she works
processing orders for custom-made
blankets in various sizes and colors.
After operating a knitting machine,
she finishes each one by hand.
"I have the joy of getting wonder-
ful phone calls to hear about new
babies," says Ceresnie, whose busi-
ness has been dubbed Names in Knit.
The one thing the blankets have in
common actually differentiates them.
Each blanket has the recipient baby's
name repeated in a pattern, either
just on one side or on both sides of
machine-washable acrylic.
Ceresnie, in business for 30 years,
gets requests for Hebrew names,
which she spells out phonetically in
English. A blanket can have both the
English and Hebrew names of a baby.
"The most popular colors are still
blue for boys and pink for girls, but
the names have changed dramati-
cally over the years," says the knitter.
"When I started this business,
there were many Stevens and
Jeffries, Jennifers and Jessicas. Now
the names are all over the place."
Also different is the basic use of
baby blankets.
Because of medical warnings
against placing blankets in cribs
when babies are sleeping and unat-
tended, the covers are most often
used in settings where infants are
interacting with adults.
"The blankets wash easily and dry
quickly," says Roz Fantich of West
Bloomfield, who has ordered some
40 blankets to give to friends and
family since receiving a gift blanket
after the birth of one of her children.
"I thought of that first blanket as
a special gift, and I hope my family
and friends think of the ones I have
given in the same way. I know my
kids have kept theirs because each is

Rosie Barnett, 6 months, daughter
of Cortney and Seth Barnett,
models her personalized blanket.

personalized and holds memories."
Ceresnie, who learned how to knit
from her grandmother, started the
business after she started a family.
She wanted work she could do at
home so gave up being a dietician.
"Over the years, I had requests for
larger blankets," she says. "Now I
also do an adult-size blanket, which
is a great present for college kids
and newlyweds. It's like a full-size
afghan."
Ceresnie, the mother of two grown
sons, uses blankets with her grand-
daughters' names as samples when
she appears at merchant shows
sponsored by Jewish organizations.
Blankets, costing between $50
and $130, take about four weeks to
make.
In some ways, the business has
been a family enterprise. Her hus-
band, Michael, has done the ship-
ping, and her sons helped develop
the accounting system and website
(namesinknit.com ).
Ceresnie, who has a black and
white blanket with her own family
name, likes to keep it on a couch.
Fantich is one customer happy
with extending the age range for
blanket recipients.
"I ordered a blanket for my
mother, Shirley Cohen, to celebrate
Mother's Day," she says. "It has the
names of all her children and grand-
children." ❑