Thanks Carrie!!

I got a great little gift in the mail last week and I was so busy running around, I didn't even know about it at first - lesson to everyone, check the mail, even if you're busy!



It's my Pay it Forward gift from Carrie. So cute, huh? She made a beautiful little knitted bag - that must be great felting yarn, because the fabric came out perfectly. She also sewed that cute little pouch and decorated the little Moleskine notebook to match - gorgeous! The inside of the pouch is the purple fabric you can see on the notebook. I'm so impressed with Carrie's sewing skills - it's just perfect! And everything's in my favorite color, purple! Thank you so much for the surprise during this hardest of Minnesota months, February. The long dark days and the endless cold is always hardest to take in February, before the days get noticeably longer and the snow starts melting in March. For my friends who signed up for Pay it Forward with me, I've gathered my materials, so you may see a little surprise of your own sometime in the next few weeks.

I did a little crafting for myself last weekend. I gave my friend Florence a "Kit of the Month" subscription from Bead Monkey for Hannukah last year. I bought one for myself as well so that we could do the beading together when we got the kit each month. We started off with a free kit I got for signing us up, the Fiore necklace. I made mine in pink:



Sorry for the quality of these pictures. It's really hard to photograph yourself in the mirror and get the little beads in focus too. This was a little bit challenging kit, but it was fun and I like how it came out. I have a lot of pink clothes that I can wear this with. I hadn't done any beading in a while and it was really fun. Since I had all the tools out, I made a couple more kits I bought at Bead Monkey too.



That's their Signature Pearl necklace. I love pearls and I like the colors they put together for that kit. I haven't worn the third necklace I made, so I'll post a picture of that after I do.

I've also been knitting a little bit. I finished up my third preemie hat:



I followed Chelle's pattern that I also used for the first one, but this time I used worsted weight yarn. I probably knit it at a gauge that was a little too firm, but it'll work. As you can see, I ran out of yarn at the top, so I switched in an unmercerized cotton and then made a pom pom to sort of cover that different yarn. I think it looks ok and it'll work. It's slightly larger than the other two I made, but it's still being modeled by a grapefruit, so I think it'll work.

I did a little more knitting (and a little ripping), but I'll save that for next time.