Claire’s favorite pajamas are bedecked with a cute cupcake print. Whenever she appears in the living room wearing this much-loved outfit, she announces to one and all that she’s the “cupcake girl!”

Now, she’ll have a soft toy to add to the ensemble:

This is the knitted cupcake from Leigh Radford’s book, One Skein. It’s a quick, easy and fun project and uses up small amounts of yarn. The only changes I made to the pattern were to make the base a little bit taller and to turn the top part inside out so the reverse side of the stockinette stitch showed. The texture helped the frosting look a little more like frosting

Finally, I dug into my button tin to create the “sprinkles” on the cupcake’s frosted top.

It turned out really cute. Unfortunately, this photo doesn’t do it justice. I’ve got another knitted “novelty” item to show you tomorrow if I manage to get the last bits and bobs sewn onto it today. These little projects are a lot of fun!

Sorry for the prolonged absence. My family and I recently returned from a long, but fun car trip to Montana, where we spent a lovely time visiting my parents and eating way too much good food.

The kids love visiting Grandma and Grandpa. This time, they were treated to star-gazing (the night skies in Montana are amazing!), sitting in the hot tub, hiking, watching movies and playing with puppies!

This is Mia and Taz, my parents’ Bergamascos–Italian sheepdogs. When they’re full-grown, they’ll be about twice the size they are here. They’re sweet-tempered, although a bit spastic, especially around the kids.

The visit was over all too soon and we had hop in the car for another eleven hours of driving. Ugh. I wish the distance wasn’t so great!

I’ve finished a number of projects recently. First, there is my beaded tam:

It was really pretty, but way too large. I ruined it altogether by trying to shrink it in the washing machine. *sigh*

I had better luck with my son’s felted teddy bear.

Isn’t he cute? My daughter’s incredibly jealous, so I better get to work on making some toys for her…