Wedding Mania

Here's my contribution to Royal Wedding mania - crocheted crowns for the baby grands.

I found the free pattern here and made one (almost*) according to the instructions, and one slightly bigger (70 chains instead of 60). But they seemed so bland, so . . . . unroyal.

A quick trip to Michaels and some good old Elmer's school glue solved that problem - I think these are much better all blinged up. And with a cat as a picture frame.
*You can see my pattern changes on my Ravelry page here.

Awesome Times Pi

It took me three months, but my Pi Shawl is done. Edie, Colleen and I started this in a class back in January. Colleen finished hers at least a month ago; Edie still has a few stitches to go but she's putting a much wider border on than the one I did.

I used one ball, 230 yards, of Kid Silk Haze for the border and one skein, 700 yards, of Kauni Wool 8/2 for the main section of the shawl. All those colors from one ball of yarn. Kauni is amazing.
And a tad scratchy. So I gave the finished shawl a warm bath in some SOAK, then pinned it out last night on the ping pong table - the only surface in our house big enough for this thing. Three sets of blocking boards later, the entire 57" diameter was blocked and drying. And I love it. It's big enough to wear folded in half, which is how I thought I'd be wearing it. But that doesn't really show off the colors or the concentric beauty. So now I'm thinking long, with a shawl collar, is better. And wouldn't you know - the day I finished this, the temps climbed into the 80's. The last week has been cloudy with drizzles. Guess I'll have to find some well air conditioned places to wear this, 'cause I'm going to wear it. So pretty.

Finishitis

Over the weekend, I got a bad case of finish-itis.

Leanne's Baby Surprise Jacket? Done. It had been sitting for over a month, waiting for me to sew up the shoulder seams and put the buttons on. It's still a bit big on her, but she'll grow.

Tunisian Ripple Scarf? Done. This is a store sample for a class I'm teaching in June. Love the colors and the texture.

Never-ending Pi Shawl? Done, done and done!

Started this in January, along with Edie and Colleen, and truly believed it would never be done. (More on this FO tomorrow.)

I finished this one earlier in the week. It's a Hexagon Baby Jacket for a friend's first grand daughter. She wanted it in time for Easter, to match the baby's new dress. Done!

Easter in Pictures

Easter was pretty low key at our place. The girls dressed in their new outfits, found their baskets,

Leia's not sure what's going on -
she perked up once she found the candy

including lots of candy and cool shades. There was an egg hunt in the front yard. Leia loved finding the plastic eggs but she didn't realize until she tripped and dropped one of the eggs that they had NUM-NUM's (candy) inside! The stunned look on her face was priceless. We usually dye eggs the day before Easter but this year I had the girls do it Easter morning. Each had a dozen eggs, and they dyed them over and over and over. Great colors and I loved the speckled look. Hoppy Easter to all!

Hoppy Easter

While I went to Guild this morning (and finished this), the guys took the little girls to a local park for an Easter egg hunt and face (or arm, in their case) painting fun. The park was packed with kids and parents but the girls still managed to find some eggs and have a great time.

Showing off their matching 'tatts.

More Train Week

Another very busy day - we rode Amtrak from Camarillo to Santa Barbara (and remembered why mass transit isn't more popular - the ticket machine gave everyone fits and the train was almost 45 minutes late.) Went to the zoo, spent over 30 minutes sliding down the playground hill, visited a brand new, very cute baby giraffe, flew a homemade kite very high for a long time, played in the surf, then came home and passed out. Naia said it was her "best day, ever!"

Train Week, Part 2

We had slightly better luck at the Nethercutt Museum* today. We got there in plenty of time to tour the free car museum before heading out back to see what we'd come for - the 1912 Pullman rail car originally owned by the daughter of "Lucky" Baldwin and the 1937 Canadian-Pacific Royal Hudson locomotive. Naia was very disappointed that the locomotive was closed for refurbishing and we couldn't go onboard.

But we were able to tour the rail car and it is opulent, with a player Pianino to greet guests at the door, formal dining for 10, staterooms with stained glass windows, servant's quarters, full kitchen with a huge cast iron stove, and much more. Tomorrow, with any luck, we'll be taking Amtrak to Santa Barbara for the day. Still need to get her a tour of a locomotive some time soon . . . .

* If you haven't visited the Nethercutt in Sylmar, it is well worth the trip. One building - the one that houses part of the car collection and the train - has free admission with no reservations required. To gain entry to the second, bigger building - with more cars, fabulous musical instruments, huge pipe organs and more - you need to make reservations in advance.