Tree of Life afghan, at last

After languishing for a few weeks while I read the whole Harry Potter series, the Tree of Life baby blanket is finally done. Here it is all pinned out for blocking; I did an applied I-cord border rather than the leaf border called for in the pattern. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, and now that this project and Harry are both out of the way, I'm hoping to focus and pick up some steam in my gift-knitting agenda. I still have another small blanket and a sweater vest on the go, but should be starting two new gift projects over the long weekend, and hopefully making progress all around.

Cage comforters

As one of my charity crafting projects for the year, I finally finished making 11 Cage Comforters to donate to New York Animal Care & Control. Pictured above are three of my favorites. I used fabric recycled from clothing and sheets; the tops of the cushions are mostly knit fabrics, while the cotton sheets make up the bottoms. They're about an inch thick each, and around 12" x 18" in size, as specified by NYACC. These were very simple to make, and I hope they do provide some comfort to a few animals in need. I would have liked to make more but I have a full roster of gifts in progress, and I was limited by a tight budget for materials. Maybe next year I'll be able to do more.

A baby gift + animals are people, too.

The Baby Surprise Jacket is done, in plenty of time for the baby's October arrival. This jacket was a joy to knit. I used a machine washable acrylic/wool blend from my stash and some sweet purple buttons I also had on hand. The jacket turned out the perfect size for the baby to wear through the winter.










And here are some little things for the animals. On a recent rainy Saturday, I spent the morning working on the Cage Comforters, one of my charity projects. There they are on the right, stacked up after being sewn & stuffed. I still need to sew up the stuffing holes and then tack them in a few places before they are ready to donate. I had some scraps of fabric left, so I cut them into strips and braided them to make toys for a friend's two Chihuahuas.