a belated happy birthday, featuring CRAFTS!

Hi Baby Sister!

 The big news from before I left for California, sadly simultaneous with the Japan earthquake/tsunami, was the long-awaited birth of Baby Sister (Lily's, not mine.)

Belatedly introducing to the world (i.e. this blog's pitifully small readership),  Miss Emeline Rachel, born March 11, 2011 at 5:23 AM, 8 lbs. 7.8 oz.

Shimmer!

The blanket is a variation on Lion Brand's Circle to Squares afghan pattern, that is, using only 2 of the 3 square sizes so as to make it  more baby-sized. The yarn is Red Heart Ltd. Shimmer in chocolate and hot pink. I must have spent half an hour roaming the yarn aisle at Michael's before finally deciding to go with them over designated baby yarn in a more traditional color scheme.  This color  scheme was inspired by Lily's winter coat. Also - did I mention that the yarn shimmers? (As does a good third of my wardrobe.)

I started out really meticulous with keeping the gauge consistent, but got lazier (read: looser with the stitches) as time went by; the outer edges are straightish instead of straight (even after I  tried blocking - and I never bother to block. My OCD self can hardly stand to look at the picture.)

Try to ignore my pasty neck.

I figured out pretty earlier I was going to have more yarn than I needed for the blanket (I'd bought 3 skeins of each color), so I started an Amigurumi giraffe using another Lion Brand pattern. 


Amanda had sent me this pattern ages ago, but it was only within the last year that I finally got around to buying the yarn to start one in the suggested colors. That one lounges, disarticulated, in my in progress bag, waiting for the next imminent baby to spur me into finishing it.


But anyway, when I finished the first giraffe , everyone who saw it (i.e. my family), raved about how cute it was, even with its somewhat gimpy eyes (the pattern calls for plastic safety eyes - I embroidered mine instead). The initial plan was to make its mate (or rather, its sister - one for Lil, one for Em) a different species all together, but I couldn't find an other Amigurumi pattern (free anyway) as cute as this one.  (Suggestions are welcome.) And so another giraffe it was; the second one was made, literally, in one night.  As to their durability? I'll have to get back to you.