Newborn colour

I am struggling to keep up in here lately. Austy will not have day naps anymore, so is very tired by the end of the day when I'm trying to cook and then I have a huge mess to clean up when I finally win the battle to get him into bed, which eats into my sewing, knitting, quilting time. I have quite a few baby gifts in progress for all these new babies popping into the world this year, so am happy to say that this one has been DELIVERED!! I thought I'd better get it to her before she grows out of it. These little longies landed at Natalie's house for her sweet little princess Cheriese. I even got to have a good cuddle while I was there, despite it being a very rushed visit as Austy was wreaking havoc at home while his Dad was trying to run cables through the roof and needed me home to help him out.

This little pair was made using the picky pants pattern from little turtle knits, and I tried out the ruffle edge. There was no photo of it on the pattern so I was very scared it would turn out bad... but I really started to like them once they settled a bit after my cast off. I dyed the wool with a bit of jelly (the blue and pink and a touch of the lavender) and with Kool Aid (still loving that stash my lovely bag swapper sent me from the US last year!) was used to get the deep purple and bright green. It was nice to knit with such happy colours. I was kicking myself for hiding the wool in the cupboard for a week thinking the dye job was bad (I was shocked at how dark the purple came out). It wasn't so bad after all!

Oh, and I am absolutely addicted to swaps, and it really must stop! I am not getting a study break this year as I have set a deadline for myself that I MUST finish my Masters by December, so I really need to stop overcomitting myself with so many babies on their way and assignments to do. But I will just do one more swap to end my addiction for a little while! ;) I have signed up for the Sassy Apron Swap. I liked the idea of making an apron that is quite simple to make and would let me play with some designs of my own. Then, browsing through flickr for inspiration lead me to this pattern. I think I am in love! It is an apron that DOESN'T make you look frumpy, is very modern and in the right fabric would look FABULOUS. Now I'm tossing up whether to order that pattern (just because I love it so much) or make one of my sketches a reality. Better get cracking, I have 4 weeks!