Spring has Sprung

A sure sign of spring- mud, mud, and more mud.

Lovely, isn't it?

Spring is off to a crazy start here in our cozy part of Minnesota. The first day of spring was our first nice day, sunshine, highs in the low to mid 40's... it was a good day to get locked out of the house and have to sit and wait an hour and a half to be rescued by daddy (I'm glad I had my cell phone, and it was charged, I'm not always so good about that...) The next day, not so good for such adventures. It snowed. And it snowed almost every day from the second day of spring until the first day of April- it was a grand April Fool's Day joke- 6 or 7 inches of snow...

The view out my bedroom window. There will be grass someday.

Most of the post season snow has melted, leaving us with our first real signs of spring, mud & allergies. With 2 young asthmatics and chronic sinus issues myself, I forget to really appreciate our long winters until the wheezing and headaches of spring hit. Ugh. With recent news about Singulair's side effects, and looking in to side effects of steroids like prednisolone (which my girls end up on when the bouts of wheezing get bad) and frequent use of albuterol and sudafed, I am on a renewed hunt for some natural allergy help... so if there are any health nuts (herbalists, naturopaths, etc...) reading this blog, feel free to leave any advice you can come up with.

We moved the cats outdoors and the girls aren't allergic to our dog, but airborne mold spores are nearly impossible to avoid this time of year... I'm wondering if there is a natural way to 'neutralize' the reaction or something like that...

In knitting news- there was much last minute (well beyond last minute, actually, yikes) new pattern design finishing touches going on early in the week. Here's a peak...

So... the Baby Shrug is not quite done. I'm still thinking it looks like it will fit my large-for-her-age 3 year old better than my average-size 18 month old. I may need to quick knit a second one a size smaller, probably in a bright color next time... I'm just about to seam and trim, or trim and seam, as the case may be with this one if I follow the pattern like a good little knitter. I'm really thinking of being rebellious and seaming first and then adding the trim all around at once with a circular needle. Either way, I'm thinking of doing the trim in Shell (the shrug is in Drift) for a delicate pink touch for my little lady.

Baby Shrug trim will probably have to wait for tonight, or perhaps for the van ride tomorrow, as I plan on spending a good chunk of my Saturday making some fun skirts for my daughters.

Fun stash fabric, gifted from my sister a while back after she couldn't decide what to make with it. I'll be adding the ribbon to bring out the orange in the print and brighten it up for my girly girls.

If there's anything that competes with stripes for my attention and affection, it's dots. How cute are these?!

And these coordinates were too fabulous to pass up. I may need to go back for more of the brown for something for myself, not sure what yet, not a tiered twirly skirt like my girls, but perhaps a Half-Circle Wrap, or a longer version of the Asian Dream skirt from "Sew What! Skirts"... Hmmm...

I'm not sure if I have enough for 4 skirts of each of the fabric combos, but we'll see. I may have to get creative and just make some coordinating things with patches of matching fabrics for the 2 youngest, if supplies run short. It might be fun to embellish some matching t-shirts too... now my creative wheels are turning. My biggest obstacles are the clock and the guilt about all the spring cleaning I should be getting to- did you see the dirt on those boots?!

Not sure if my girls will have something new to wear by tomorrow morning, but the sooner I get off the computer, the better their chances will be, know what I mean? Hehe...

'Till next week,

Happy knitting, and a little sewing love to you all as well-

ali