for the babes

I have a great excuse to shop for fabric!  I have several friends that just had or are expecting baby girls.  For a mom of four boys, this is exciting news indeed!

I am in various stages of creating blankets for some of them.  Here's one that I made for a friend who had her baby on Easter morning.  Her baby room colors are pink, green and brown, so I chose fabrics in those hues for the blanket.  It is a cozy flannel on one side and some flannel and cotton strips on the other.  I didn't add batting because the flannel is thick enough for a spring baby.  I quilted it with simple straight lines and added a little bit of green ric rac and brown binding.   I don't remember what it measured but it was generous because I do love a good-sized baby blanket that can double as a nursing cover.

I have another colorful strip quilt that needs to be finished for a friend... whose baby is almost a month old!  Yikes, I better get to that!  And then I need to come up with something lovely for my cousin's baby who will be born in a month.  I'm so excited to finally have a girl baby in the family!

And for the boys... well, they like to crowd into the office chair when I'm online and if I'm on ravelry they request things.  Here's something I made for them a while ago to their specifications. 

ravelry link here

These finger puppets were fun and pretty simple to make. I love the tails on all these critters although you can't really see them in this picture.  The pig was requested by Ethan, the cow (who looks like he has measles) by Nathaniel, and the dog by Jude who was most surprised when he saw that he had essentially ordered Clifford.

granny squares

there is something so fun about making them.  it's what made me want to learn to crochet (again) about a year ago.  it's a relaxing activity and you can make them in all different patterns, sizes, colors etc without needing intricate patterns and such.  for the past week, i've just picked up yarn and hook and worked through a few in the evenings as a way to close out the day with no long-term project in mind.

but now thanks to sarah london, my granny squares have a purpose.  [i just love crafting for this reason.]  she's decided to respond to the flooding in australia (read more here) by providing handmade blankets to people as they rebuild.  in her words, she's looking to provide "comfort and colour... as a reminder that there is always a rainbow after a storm."

so if you can, join.  no guilt if you can't.

a sweater

I actually managed to finish a project!  It's a crocheted sweater called Bombay Love found here on ravelry.  The original has shorter sleeves, but I lengthened them given we do live in MN.  I used yarn that I had on hand in colors that I primarily had on hand because I wasn't sure how it would go.  But, this sweater works up so quickly (the beauty of crochet) you could seriously make one in every color scheme you wanted. 



More pictures to come in the next post.