Sproing!

Well, there's a definite feeling in the air outside. It smells like sunshine and wet earth, and the mornings are crisp and cold, but more often than not warming up into mild and sunny days. Spring is well and truly here, and summer is on the way.

From October through April, Master Mayhems kindy has a 'no hat, no outside play' rule. It's a good rule, and I like it alot because I am fairly anal retentive when it comes to sun protection. However, the rate at which he lost hats throughout the first half of the year had to be seen to be believed. Given how much my kids love hand made things though, (ecspecially mum - made) I bought a great pattern, some nice fabric and made them a brand spanking new bucket hat each.

The pattern is the 'Lazy Days' hat pattern from Make It Perfect. It comes sized from infant right up to adult, and I think it's awesome! The hats have enough brim on them to make them truly protective, where a lot of bucket style hats aren't really protective at all. I like them so much I think I may make myself one.

The hats are fully reversible, and for Master Mayhems I used an Alexander Henry fabric of soccerballs and a New Zealand print fabric with classic holdens on it ;) For Miss Chaos, both fabrics are from the midwest modern range, by Amy Butler. Tres cute!

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Also, I can finally reveal one of my secret squirrels! Last weekend we headed on down to my sister's 40th Birthday party. A good time was had by all, and I am pleased to report she loved her gift.

For her birthday I knit a 'Swallowtail' shawl. It is knit from Kaalund Yarns 'Enchante' which is a 2 ply pure silk laceweight. The colourway is 'LillyPilly' which is a beautiful soft pink colour, and I used foil lined glass beads instead of knitting the nupps.

There is a total of 22 repeats of the main budding lace pattern, and I left the final 6 rows off the edging chart and bound off where I was. I like the not-so-pointy edge this created, even though it was done more out of necessity than choice. (the necessity being it was finished at 2.30am the morning of the party and I could push on no longer). It is light as a feather and barely there at all :)

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Things are fairly hectic around here - it is Master Mayhem's 4th Birthday on Wednesday. So sad! I don't know where my teeny boy went, in the blink of an eye. He has gone from being a tiny almost premmie sized baby, to a small tank of a boy who does everything at top speed and breaks down any and every barrier in his way. ~sniff!~ So until I manage another post (hopefully soon - I have the Hostage Lavender to post about next time) enjoy spring, in all it;s forms.

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