"I went to my first opera when I was in junior high," she says.

Hooked on opera since then, Dearing was recently named to the board of directors of the San Francisco Opera.

But opera isn't her only love, and her second love, which also hooked her early in life, has led to a new career too, as Dearing left her job in the high tech industry as a software engineer and now creates custom clothing for infants and toddlers.

"About the same time I got hooked on opera I got hooked on knitting," Dearing says.

In a roundabout way, her two loves mesh quite well.

Her new company, Dear Things, sells unique jumpers, rompers, sweaters, hats and anything an adoring parent or grandparent can dream up to give to that special little one.

The fastest growing industry in retail is the toddler and infant clothing line, she says, and now Baby Boomers are coming of age to become grandparents, which opens up a huge market with a generation accustomed to having more disposable income than their own grandparents had when they were kids. People like to give newborns something special, and Dearing has a lot to offer.

Refusing to mass produce the clothing she makes, Almaden's Dearing—who has been doing some form of needlecraft since she was 6 years old—says she designs new pieces herself or works with customers who have ideas of their own. Reusing patterns as a guide, but intermixing fabric with yarn, changing color combinations, buttons, piping or other trim, and finding unusual material, she produces something new each time.

Material left over from many of these custom designs isn't just tossed aside. Dearing knits, crochets or sews up something—sometimes combining all three techniques—for charity giving many of her custom pieces to the Salvation Army or Goodwill, she says.

To Dearing, it's more than just a way to use up scrap pieces of yarn or fabric. She says she relishes the idea that a young mother who could not afford to purchase direct from her can still see her baby in a custom jumper for next to nothing.

"In early childhood studies it's been shown that making [children] feel good about themselves when they are young helps them to feel better about themselves later in life," she says.

It was the elaborate costumes of the opera that acted as a magnet to Dearing, and though she's not putting babies in 18th Century knee breeches, panniers, or mantuas, she is in a way playing "dress up" from a distance by donating the one-of-a-kind outfits to charities.

Not limiting herself to the San Francisco Opera, Dearing is a frequent benefactor of theatre in the Bay Area, and for the past four years she has taken a group of students to the opera, paying for it out of her own pocket. Dearing also works in collaboration with the African-American Opera Theatre group to find students from lower economic areas that might otherwise not be able to go to an opera.

She buys the tickets, arranges for some of the performers to chat after the performance with the students and also treats the students to dinner. The students have never been to an opera, and most of them have probably never been to a professional theatre production, she says. Taking them to the theatre gives them a view into something usually reserved only for the rich.

"It opens up your eyes to a whole different world," she says.

There is more to opera than just the pageantry and color that she loves, she says. There is history, moral and ethical issues, music and acting, and—another of her favorites—strong women roles. Exposing teens to opera gives them an understanding of a myriad of options which she likes to point out as seeing what goes on behind the scenes as well as what is seen on stage.

"If you're interested in cosmetics, there's the make-up [for the performers,] if you are an artist, there are sets to be designed," she says.

Dearing, who was born in Berkeley and raised in Oakland, was exposed to a variety of music in their home, she says.

"Sundays were reserved for classical music," Dearing says.

In addition to introducing her to music, both of her parents sewed and knitted when she was growing up.

"In fact, my dad is making a quilt right now," she says.

She takes along her knitting needles with her almost everywhere she goes, and she occasionally combines her new business with her passion for music, and has been found at downtown San Jose's Music in the Park knitting and purling and tapping her toes to the music.

Ira Dearing's custom children's clothing can be viewed at www.dear-things.com.