I’ve been working on several custom orders lately and have been really enjoying them. I like the challenge of making new designs but even more, I like taking customer’s ideas and turning them into something pretty!

Sometimes it’s hard to find the time to do things for myself but I try to squeeze it in. Sesame loves her Klean Kanteen water bottle and I finally made her a felted wool cover of her own. I feel bad that I made so many covers for other kids before she finally got one but that’s the way it goes sometimes.

I’m also working on some new products for my shop and the festivals I’ll be doing this summer. For the latest news and updates on the things I’ve been working on, subscribe to my newsletter! You’ll also get some exclusive discounts and offers and now, if you sign up by the end of the month, you’ll be eligible to win a cute, cozy coffee sleeve! I’ll randomly choose one subscriber who’ll win a coffee sleeve of my choice.

The winner is Carol, aka An Island Girl, aka Knitting Nanna! She guessed 56, which is very close to the correct number of 59! I thought about laying all the ends out for you to see but in the end, that picture would have looked just as jumbled up as the pile in my previous post. So, you’ll just have to trust me. She’ll be the recipient of one of my ThinkingMama Designs, soft and fuzzy reusable coffee sleeves!

What were all those ends for, you ask?

For this adorable little ruffled cardigan. It needs a button and a good blocking but since sesame can’t wear it for a little while, I’m calling it done for now. The yarn and pattern were a Christmas gift from my uncle who knows nothing about knitting but he saw a sample knitted in a shop window and went in and asked for everything needed to make it! It was a pretty awesome gift. The yarn is Sublime’s Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK and it is so soft and gorgeous! (I don’t think Uncle G realized how expensive the yarn was until it was too late The baby now has a nicer sweater than any that I own! It’s the 1-2 year size so she’ll be able to wear it for a long time. The pattern is from Sublime’s booklet, The Second Little Handknit Book and it’s full of adorable little baby and toddler patterns. I followed the pattern exactly and it’s the cutest thing ever, other than the baby herself.

Happy weekend! It’s sunny here in Portland so we’re going to go outside now!

I finished knitting a cute stripey soaker for little sesame using this pattern but I haven’t gotten her to hold still for a photo yet.

I could show you what I put in my shop today but it already sold!

So this will be boring and not have a picture.

• Knitting projects and patterns, of course. I haven’t abandoned my knitting obsession!
• Lots of other craftiness! I really only had a knitting audience before and I want to expand to show you my other craft endeavors so I needed a new look.
• Beautiful pictures of things I’m inspired by, profiles of other fabulous crafters and a connection to the craft world in general.
• A peek inside my creative process so you can see what I’m up to and be the first to see new stuff in my shop.

That’s right, I have a shop! I’ve started selling on Etsy and that’s why I’ve been absent for a while. It took some time to get things all set up.

I’ve been making things out of recycled, felted sweaters and these are a few things you might find in my shop, ThinkingMama.etsy.com. (Self-promotion over)

In honor of my new site, I’m having a contest!’ I got a lovely Christmas gift of yarn and a pattern to knit a little something for Sairshe. It still needs to be blocked so I’ll wait until after the contest to give you the details and show you a full picture.

It’s beautiful but it’s striped so even though I’ve been carrying the yarns not in use up the side, I still ended up with a million ends to weave in! How does this happen?

Let’s see if you can guess how many ends this is. Leave your guess in a comment and I’ll pick a winner next Friday. In the event of a tie, I’ll randomly choose a winner from the correct (or closest) guesses.

Oh! You need a prize, don’t you?’ I’ll send the winner this wool coffee cozy, like those I’m selling on etsy so make sure your comment has a way to contact you.

Reduce, reuse, recycle, peeps. Enjoy my new spot and stop by again soon!