A bear, an apron and a return to work

My maternity leave finally came to an end this week, and I returned to my job on Monday.  No so bad, nice to see people and do adult things without having eyes in the back of your head.  But I sure do miss Squiggles.  I like him a whole lot :)  Thankfully, because Mr. Bear is a teacher, he is home with Squiggles for the summer before we begin the adventure that is daycare in the fall.  They've already had lots of fun together this week, so I'm glad :)

I had wanted to finish a bunch of project I had in the queue before I went back to work, but not surprisingly, time ran out!!!  The office is still a disaster (although it is down two crappy bookcases, which is a definite plus)  And there is a small pile of cut fabric on top of a much larger pile of uncut fabric just waiting for my attention.

One of the two things I did finish was my second knitting project, a little green teddy for Squiggles from Erika Knight's book Simple Knits for Cherished Babies.

Despite it's miniature size, boy it took a while.  That's likely because it was full of knitting things I hadn't done before.  Simple enough stuff for most knitters, but not for me!  What I can say is that I'm pretty darn comfy with increases and decreases now, but still not so good with taking out stitches in any sort of organized manner.  Lets just say I had to completely take out and remake a few of the pieces of this little guy!   But he sure was a good learning tool!  And generally I think he's ok,  my seaming is not perfect and he almost looks like he has pointy cat ears, but ya know, Squiggles doesn't notice.

I made him a teeny sort of bow tie, although it could be improved, but it does hide my questionable neck seaming!

I also made up an apron on commission from my soon to be sister-in-law for her sister.  I like making aprons, you can use crazy fabrics, you don't have to worry to much about fit, and people love them!  Its made from this McCall's Pattern.  I like the basic design of it, it's a bit funky but not to crazy.  My sister-in-law likes it, and is sure her sister will too (I made my sister-in-law a similar one for Christmas last year, and her sister coveted it!)

I'm toying with the idea of designing my own apron, it's a gift I often make for people and I have some ideas about what I like and don't like in the several that I have made.  I recently also discovered that there is this quilt shop in the suburbs that actually stocks some actual nice designer fabric (moda, amy butler, anna-maria horner, etc) that would make awesome aprons.  Normally I'm just limited to what my local chain store has, which is sometimes ok for aprons, but I think I could make some that are a bit more modern with these fabrics.  And apron skirts are perfectly sized to be made from a fat quilt quarter!  So it's pretty affordable to get these fabrics for that purpose.   I'm making a trip to the big big city of Toronto soon, and will hopefully hit up some nice fabric shops there too!

That's all for now, I have more things brewing, despite my return to work!