Girls Night: April

Last week we met at P's with husbands and children in tow for Girls Night. I worked on my flower pillow (and finished it the next day--hooray!) and K. started working on a knitted cupcake hat for her littlest one.

P. really put us both to shame because she has been going crazy lately with crafting at her house.

Here's a fun scarf she's knitting with novelty yarn. It produces a very soft and fluffy texture, but takes a little getting used to when knitting; you have to knit in between the puffs of yarn and P. said the stitches didn't always match up with the amount of space she had, etc.

And here's a beautiful ruffled scarf that I love. P. got this kit at the yarn store we all visited together. I hope she's able to finish it. Unfortunately she's had a lot of issues with yarn breaking on this one.

Hopefully she can continue it.

And if that wasn't enough already, the girl went and made herself a dress too!

It's Simplicity Pattern 2369. Now that she's played around with it in brown jersey knit, she's going to try it again with this print:

As K. remarked, it's very Diane von Furstenberg. I'm so impressed. Now she's getting me inspired to try my hand at an actual sewing pattern. I don't know though. The sewing machine and I don't always get along.

I was so excited by all the craftiness going on. But I was even more excited about this cotton candy vodka drink (left) and whipped cream vodka (on the right). Who knew they made vodka in those flavors?

I can't forget my hastiness to eat these desserts either (the scale certainly didn't forget). Gotta love Cowboy Cookies and chocolate covered pretzels.

It was a very fun craft night and good to see the girls. I was so inspired afterwards that I was determined to finish my flower pillow. The next day I added strips of leftover yellow flowered fabric from C's baby quilt. I then top stitched it to the flower top, stuffed in the pillow form, and sewed it closed.

I presented it and the doll blanket to my nieces on Easter.

They really liked them and that made me most excited of all. 

April Flowers

These flowers are very addictive.

And they're another way to use up stash yarn.

This will eventually turn into a pillow.

I'm going to try to get a pillow form this weekend so I know how many more to make.

Until then I guess I'll just keep making them.

Like I said, they are really addictive.

The pattern is from here. I love all the different color combinations other crocheters used on Ravelry and would love to make one in a wide variety of colors, but I have this earmarked for a special little someone already and these colors match her bed spread (mostly). I'll probably revisit the pattern again later and go crazy with color. Wouldn't this make a great throw at the bottom of a little girl's bed in a bunch of pinks, greens, oranges, lavenders? I've been yearning to make some girly things lately and this pattern fit the bill. I used a 3.75 mm hook and a mishmash of acrylic yarns.

Like Slipping on an Old, Comfortable Pair of Earflaps

This is the earflap hat I made for my husband's friend's baby. It's crocheted from this pattern that I use over and over. I made a couple flowers using this pattern. There were supposed to be 5 petals, but I lost count somewhere and my flowers have four instead, which is fine by me.

 

Because I have been knitting so much lately, I really loved making this. Dare I say it? Crochet, how have I missed thee? Let me count the ways... There's just something very comforting about returning to an activity that you know so well, it feels automatic. It can be very Zen-like because your mind doesn't have to think about what your hands are doing. This muscle memory reminds me of playing the piano. After practicing a piece of music, your fingers just know what to do; your mind doesn't think of each individual note anymore. Its's almost like somebody else's hands are flying over the keys.

I hope the gift recipient enjoys this hat as much as I enjoyed making it.