Little gems…..

Saturday, finally! My favorite day of the week……although it was a good week all around. For starters, it was my little four-legged gem’s 2nd birthday yesterday. The look I’m getting above is “there’s going to be cake, right?” My sister and brother-in-law (AKA Coco’s aunt and uncle) provided the cake in the form of yummy cupcakes, after a heaping helping of NY-style pizza from Abitino’s first. What other 2 year old dog that you know gets a birthday party??

The second little gem of the week was this baby blanket that I whipped up for a friend’s first baby in about a week’s time (that’s fast for me, folks!). It’s crocheted with a double crochet-type stitch, and a clean & simple single crochet border. The finished, blocked size is about 34″ x 34″, perfect as a carriage blanket. I used 9 skeins of gorgeous oatmeal-colored Tahki Torino extrafine merino (sadly discontinued, as it’s a really lovely yarn) from Tahki Stacy Charles and a size H hook. Thanks to Ken Burns’ Civil War documentary being reshown on PBS this week in honor of the 150th anniversary of the beginning of that war, I got a lot of crocheting done and now I just need to wrap this little gem up before the baby arrives! A couple more shots for good measure:


I’m thinking about writing this one up as a free pattern – I’ll let you know when/if I decide to do that……

Other gems to look forward to this weekend?  Watching the Masters Tournament on TV (I love watching golf on TV – a unique characteristic among my peer group, to be sure – and this is my favorite tournament), doing a photo shoot for a “secret” project to be submitted for publication and seeing one of my two adorable nephews at the same time, some early shopping for Easter basket goodies, knitting some more on my sweet green shawl (I think it’s time for a lace border?), and seeing the new “Upstairs Downstairs” on Masterpiece Classic – I can’t wait to see the costumes and sets!

Have a great weekend – Coco will be keeping an eye out for you!