spoiled rotten

It's early on the morning of my birthday and I'm getting ready to go to work. But the past weekend has been a fabulous birthday weekend. On Saturday Gavin and I lunched with Mom, Nancy and Gabe. Lots of fun, lots of presents and the chocolatiest cake ever. You can see some of my birthday loot in the photo including a Hand Dyeing Kit for Socks from Louet that I've been wanting for ages. Thanks Mom!

Sunday afternoon I spent with my sister. For my birthday she took me to a quilt store and said I could have anything I wanted. So I've got a book on Patchwork Puzzle Balls, a template for a Pyramid Charm quilt and a whole bunch of fabric squares. Janice picked about twenty different fabrics I'd never have picked for myself. She likes bright, clean, saturated colours whereas I lean towards more muted neutrals. But my quilts would be very boring and matchy-matchy without a push to use different colours and patterns. And it was fun to see what each other would pick.

Of course, you knew that I couldn't pick a pattern, buy yarn and not cast on right away. So the baby blanket has been started. And the pattern is not nearly as hard as I feared. The cotton yarn is a bit split-y and has little give, so I have to watch what I'm doing to keep the plys together and the tension even. So far, so good!