Birthday Hat

A friend's little girl just had her first birthday.  They live all the way down in Arrowtown/Queenstown so along with a box of warm hand me downs, we sent this hat as a birthday gift. 

 I thought the 2 variegated yarns paired up nicely and gave a bit of a vintage feel, especially once I added the shell-like button. 

And this is an action shot of my daughter trying the hat on for size.  She's quite a bit bigger than the birthday girl so everything should be right-on sizing wise. 

Mother's Day

No, I didn't craft for myself for Mother's Day.  I helped my husband's daughter make some chocolates for her mum.  They were milk chocolate hearts filled with brandy soaked cherries. 

We then simply lined a purple Chinese takeaway style gift box with a napkin and placed them in.  Not sure how they tasted as we only made 12 and they all went in the box.  A very quick and easy project for sure!

That's How I Roll - Birthday Embroidery

My husband's birthday was on Wednesday.  It is hard to surprise someone by making them something when you live in the same house and he works from home. 

I had this idea in mind for him for a while - I got it one day when he was looking at tshirts online and they had a similar print.  I purchased the hoop one day at Spotlight not sure what it would be used for, but thought of it when I was in my "must make my husband's birthday present" mode.  I had thought it was a darker blue, rather than teal, but didn't mind the colour when I looked as saw matching embroidery floss in my stash.  As for the fabric, I was going to use plain cream cotton but then found the white ripstop nylon which reminds me of parachutes and further ties into the aviation theme.

Unfortunately, my husband was attending a funeral on Tuesday, but it did give me some alone time to stitch this up.  As a bonus, my little girl napped for 2.5 hours which was long enough for me to get the main stitching done.

 And a close up of my stitches.  I'm no expert at embroidery and this was all free-handed, but I think it came out great.  Mainly backstitch, with satin stitch on the planes, and french knots for the wheels and punctuation.

Brother in law Birthday

A brother in law can be a notoriously hard person to choose a gift for.  This would definitely be true in my case, and more so since I had to choose something I could make.  Usually my husband picks the birthday gifts for his brothers but with my project this year, it was left up to me. 

The eldest of the brothers had his birthday about a week ago now, just before one of the biggest lotto draws in NZ history ($34 million which was going to be awarded even if no one matched all of the numbers) so, as an easy out, his present ended up being a lotto ticket.

A lotto ticket!?  You might be condemning me for this one - no I didn't make the lotto ticket.  I didn't even pick the numbers.  Instead, I thought up a crafty and fun way to package it.  Since he had the chance to win a fortune, I decided to crochet a fortune cookie to put the ticket inside and package that in a miniature Chinese takeaway box.

I didn't make the card, but it is a handmade card and it features a scooter.  Fitting since my brother in law rides a Vespa.

  I also made a chocolate courgette cake for after the birthday dinner.  It was absolutely moist and delicious and the kids had no idea there were vegetables in it!

Coming soon, my husband's birthday and Easter...dun dun dun...

Baby Hat and Booties

My good friend Bianca is expecting her second baby within the next month.  She already has a little boy and the new baby is going to be a little girl.  It's always fun making teeny little things so I went ahead and crocheted a hat and slippers for the baby to be.

I started out with soft wool in a strong pink colour and began crocheting a pattern that I'd found online.  Unfortunately that pattern was working out way too small, even for a newborn, so I went ahead and free-styled it into something that I thought was a more realistic size.  The design is a very simple shell pattern which gives loads of texture.  For added interest, I made a contrasting stripe in charcoal grey.  The booties were entirely my own design, based on the hat.  They are grey with a grey and pink shell pattern on the top to match the hat.  No real pictures, just this one from my cell phone.

I hope they fit little Mila when she arrives!

Sea Side Scarf

Another one of the ladies in our family has had a birthday.  It was my mother in law, a woman with particular tastes and the means and inclination to get what she wants and needs.  Needless to say, I had to put on my thinking cap to come up with something that would be luxurious and within my means to make as I've been short on time lately.  Between my husband and I, we came up with making a scarf as the mother in law is often seen wearing one.  My husband chose the yarn (Stitch n Bitch Nations Bamboo Ewe in Eucalyptus) and I chose a classic "granny square" design with a short fringe.  

Lily, our 4 year old, named it The Sea Side Scarf because Dum, as we call my MIL, lives by the beach and the colour of the yarn is like the ocean.  Good name, I thought!  Here is the scarf all rolled up and ready to be wrapped.

And Lily couldn't let it go without modelling  the scarf for everyone to see.

My Ravelry post about this scarf is here.

Bianca's Birthday!

My friend Bianca had a birthday last weekend and in good girlfriend fashion, I gave her a fun gift of something she might not get for herself. 

I made her a mesh cowl from a bamboo/wool blend yarn in a beautiful rich pink colour.  My husband actually picked the yarn and I think it was a great choice and suited Bianca much better than it suits me in this photo.

And a photo of it packaged up before it was wrapped.

 I made a little care label on a piece of pretty scrap booking paper so she'd know what the fibre was and how to keep it looking mint.  I think the colour is better represented in the first photo :)

My Ravelry post about this cowl is here.