crafties

I've been doing some knitting. This cap (still needs to have the ends woven in and ties added, but let's call it finished just for now) was one of those troubled projects... first, I had to do all sorts of fancy math to get the gauge right. Then, I made a mistake and decided to start over (but that happened all of 15 rows into it, so it wasn't such a grave loss). Then I made another mistake later that required some really focused thinking to figure out how to repair. Then I took the whole project to San Diego with me, only to discover that one of my double-pointed needles was missing. Once I found that needle (after some semi-desperate searching and frantic emailing pleading with people to look for my needle at their houses), I finished the rest of the hat without incident. Yay!
Except - that's supposed to be sized for a 6-months-old and it's almost big enough for my 3-year-old to wear.
I like the pattern so much, however, that I've decided to keep trying to recreate it smaller. Knitting goes well with watching Downton Abbey, so I've been rather productive on that front - I think the one I started this weekend will be a good newborn size.

A friend of mine is having a second baby - a baby doctors told her she would probably never have, which... yay! For her baby shower, I decided to get a little something off the registry and add in a few little handmade things. I always have the compulsion to give something I made, but I always doubt that it's "good enough." It's kind of silly - people are usually impressed (or pretend really well that they are) when I give them something I made... I should really get over it.
So - I made a cute little owl onesie (the shower had an owl theme, and there were tons of owly items on the registry, so I decided to go with it). I couldn't find cute owl fabric to sew something from, so I bought an iron-on transfer instead and ironed it onto a onesie. To go with that, I made a cute little pair of shorts out of some knit fabric I had in my stash. To top it off, I added a teeny pilot cap I knitted a while ago. It's mercerized cotton yarn (fair trade organic, blah blah blah), so it should be just right for a California spring baby - not too hot. Cute, no?!

This is crafting-unrelated, but cute. My most recent photo trick is to tell Noah that he CANNOT be in the photo. "NO!" I tell him. "Go over there! You can't be in this picture! What... NOAH! Get out of my way!" I get the best photos of mischievous giggles this way.