Newborn booties

These booties were so easy to knit and look so cute! They were made following a pattern called 'Saartje's bootees' from http://www.saartjeknits.nl - the pattern is also available for free on the Ravelry website. The only slightly tricky bit was making the button loops as that bit wasn't described in the pattern. I just used a crochet hook to make a chain of stitches to create the loop. I'm sure it could be done in a neater way but that was the first idea that came to me, and I was dying to finish off the booties! They are definitely newborn size - very tiny, much smaller than the usual booties I have made in the past. These ones measure 7cm from toe to heel along the sole. I'm sure I will be making more of these!

I also received a lovely present in the mail this week from my crafty Aunt M...a cross-stitched picture of a scientist bear. Very cute and particularly meaningful since my PhD involved bear genetics and evolution! It's now sitting up on my bookshelf keeping some of my other bears company.

Craft & Garden Update

Things have again been very busy the last few weeks. The biggest news is that J's sister's baby was born, she had a little girl called Jasmine who is gorgeous. So I was able to finish off the green vest/dress I had been knitting for the baby by sewing on some cute flower buttons.

I've also made some progress with my crochet granny squares for the blanket I'm making...I've completed 7 squares now. I haven't calculated how many squares I'll actually need to make a blanket in case that freaks me out. But it's a good project that I can keep making squares for slowly in between other projects, eventually I'll have enough to stitch them all together into a blanket :-)

On the gardening front I have decided that in Spring I'll try to plant a few more unusual vegies in my garden, rather than just growing things that are readily and/or cheap to buy at the local shops. It makes it more fun to grow something a bit different anyway. So I ordered a few interesting packets of organic seeds from Green Harvest . My collection of seeds arrived the other day, including purple dragon carrots, scarlet runner beans, purple-podded peas and a colour mix of carrots that include red, white, orange and purple skinned varieties! Should be some fun and colourful times in my garden soon...pity I have to be patient and wait until spring to plant them!! I also made a homemade hand scrub which is meant to be great for cleaning dirt off your hands after playing in the garden. The hand scrub is made from 1/4 cup dried lavender (from my friend Hannah's parents garden), 1 cup coarse/rock sea salt, 1/2 cup oil. I found the original recipe on this blog, but as I couldnt find any of the coconut oil they suggested, I just used cheap baby oil and that seems to work well. It smells divine.