Chroma Baby Quilt

 I decided to learn how to crochet to keep me busy during my second pregnancy. I thought I might make a few hats or something, but then I spotted this quilt and couldn't get it out of my head.

Luckily we live in an age where you can learn just about everything thanks to the internet. I learned the basic stitches here then tried to follow a pattern to make a granny square. This totally failed, but luckily I found a great granny square video here. Then I used a combination of The Adventures of the Gingerbread Lady and this Klimtchen pattern from Ravelry to piece it all together.

 Piles of squares.

 Laying it all out into three panels.

I used Chroma worsted weight yarn from Knit Picks. I wasn't interested in switching yarns like in the original pattern to make the stripes and I love working with yarn that changes colour. I'm guessing I used about 6-7 balls of yarn and the blanket measures about 95 by 110cm - pretty big for a baby blanket. It's got a good weight to it and I'd be tempted to use the fingering wool if I were to do it again, partly because that would reduce to price of the yarn by about half.

Babies and the Man Shop

 Some woodwork by Cassia. I guess this is what she had in mind when she said "I'm going to take Tiny Little Baby to day care and then come back and work in my man-shop."

And here is Tiny Little cozily tucked into her bed with her wooden blankets. 

For the record, her other babies are named Big Baby and Baby Mini. Though Baby Mini isn't actually a consistent entity; Baby Mini has been her hand, a spoon and a carefully held pocket of air.

Big Sur

 

 Our new 4-person tent - so much space!

 Western fence lizard

 C jammed into the little backpack on the back of her carrier.

Carpobrotus sp. - non-native and invasive, but very pretty.

Elephant Seals

 Male elephant seal hanging out on the beach at Ano Nuevo State Park.

This is how I feel right now, being 8 1/2 months pregnant.

 Lots of baby elephant seals. These 'little' guys are born weighing about 70 lbs. They then go on to gain 7-8 lbs a day for about a month. Then their moms leave the beach (I would too if I were breastfeeding for a month with no source of food). The babies hang out on their own until they can figure out how to swim and fend for themselves in the ocean. The system seems to work because their numbers are on the rise after nearly being wiped out by hunting.

Three generations

Muir Woods