Easter Babies

 My nephew Trevor and his wife Courtney are expecting a baby in July and will be visiting this weekend so I have been rushing all week trying to get some baby crafting done for them.  I am a firm advocate for baby girls because I don't care for the color pink and there is no law that says you have to make pink things for them.  I got this cute teal flannel for 60% off at Joann's and edged it with fuchsia blanket binding.  Fuchsia in small amounts can be stunning.

I have had a tutorial for this diaper pouch for some time and have wanted to try it out.  I used linen purchased on sale and some whale total-impulse-buy cotton from Joann's.  I was standing at the cutting table getting something else and saw those whales in the pile to be put back and just had to get some because they were so cute!  This was the first time I'd ever sewn with real linen.  I love the look of it but it wasn't fun to work with.  Maybe that will get easier with experience.  I absolutely hate cutting out fabric because I am impatient and as long as I was taking the trouble to make one, I made three.  One will go to my nephew and his wife, another will go to my sister, and the third will go to my husband's niece Becky. 

Here is another knit dress for size 0-6 months knit with my stash of bargain Woodlands yarn from Micheals.  As much as I love this yarn, I think I'm going to start cutting and discarding the big stripes of salmon colored sections because I don't like them next to the other 'jewel tones'.  I'm knitting a matching pair of booties that I can work on tonight and finish up in the car/hotel tomorrow.

This weekend we are getting together for Easter, my nieces birthday and *sigh* my birthday so last night I baked a triple batch of the compulsory frosted sugar cookies.  My little nephew really likes these and when he says "cookie" it sounds more like "dookie".  :)  My big nephews like them too and I made extra to send home with them.  I made a container to take to work with me tonight and they just phoned and put me on call.  More cookies to share with family!  These are the last frosted sugar cookies until October because the frosting doesn't behave once there is any humidity in the air.  I made mostly eggs because they're easier and faster to frost but I made a bunny for each of the nieces and nephews.

Shop til you Drop!

My dear friends Melissa and Brenda came up from Iowa this weekend and we all stayed in a hotel near the Mall of America.   It was Girls' Weekend and we had a blast!  It officially started with dinner at Red Lobster followed by shopping at IKEA.  We gabbed in our hotel room til all hours Friday night and got up early Saturday morning.  By 10 AM we were cruising the mall and shopped our carefully planned list of stores until about 2 PM.  We lunched at Cracker Barrel and then hit the Burnsville Mall.  By that time we were just dead but revived ourselves in the hotel pool and had a quiet evening crafting in our room, painting our toenails and grazing for supper on all the great snacky foods we'd brought.  I hadn't seen those two since the wedding but this kind of weekend was long overdue!  We had such a great time and I am sure we'll do this again.  I just hope that in the coming years, I will be able to drive them to the different quirky stores and attractions in the city.

 I knit each of them a Wingspan scarf out of Loops and Threads Woodland yarn that I got on clearance at Michael's.  I just fell in love with this yarn because it was on clearance but also because it reminds me of Kauni yarn the way it slowly changes color.  It has a much softer hand that Kauni which feels coarser and itchier.  I literally bought bags and bags of the stuff.  This is a a jewel tones colorway that looked like Brenda.

 This is the more neutral palette I used for Melissa.  Years ago I knit a taupe ruffle scarf for her after she mentioned she'd had one years before and loved it but lost it somewhere.  This colorway reminded me of that scarf.  The pattern calls for 8 scallops but I made these a little longer with 11.  In all honesty, I think this would be better even longer and next time would do maybe 13 or 15 scallops.

These photos were taken on the bed of our hotel room because I raced all week to finish them in time for the weekend and literally wove the ends in that evening in the room.  Here is a close up of the color changes.  I've already started another one with a different colorway just to see what it is going to look like!