Before and after

Aidan asked me to make some felted heart coasters for his teachers for Valentine's Day. How could I say no?

Using bulky yarn and big needles, these hearts knit up fast. I bought one skein each of red and pink, and each skein yielded four hearts. Once knitted, the hearts needed to felt, which I do in the washer. I like felting, because there is a little bit of magic in the way the item changes.

Here is a before shot of one heart:


You can see that it measured 8.5 inches wide.

Here is the same heart after felting:


Magic - it shrunk to just 6 inches wide!

Aidan now has eight heart coasters, one each for his classroom teacher, the "specials" teachers (art, PE, music, library, computers), his classroom teacher from last year and a special family friend.

The fish that ate my child

When Aidan saw photos last winter of a hat that looks like a fish, he asked me to knit one for him. Make that BEGGED me to knit one for him. I finally got around to casting on the hat back in October. Then we moved and then it was the holidays and I was still knitting the hat. I finally finished the hat this past week - yay!

I went a little wild with the colors and Aidan asked that the fish be alive, not dead, so I used black buttons on top of the white felt circles for the eyes:


Although he is grimacing (he said it was too bright outside) in this photo, Aidan seems to be pleased with the hat:


I call this photo "fish on ice":


Both the fish hat and the boy said that this was their best side: