Babies, babies and more babies

Today is the day of the baby shower for two of my colleagues. Shhh, it's supposed to be a surprise.

Needless to say I was up much later than normal last night finishing everything (including something that hadn't even been started yet!).

First:

For Kelly and his wife Judy:

Baby booties in Koigu (yes babies deserve this stuff too ;-) ). I absolutely adore this colorway. They are doing the munchkin's room in Aqua, Brown and White, so it doesn't get much better than this. I have also made a pair of gauntlets out of the same colorway. Talk about soft.


Second:

For Robin and my co-worker Josh:

There will be baby booties, but like the dork I am, I left the yarn at home, on the coffee table, in an open zip-loc baggy, where the new yarn thief puppy can reach it. Thankfully hubby works from home.

I did however manage to make the quilt I wanted for her last night. Start to finish 2.5 hours. And I cheated all the way. Sigh. But it was the only way to get it done. I will never ever machine sew both sides of the binding again. It just doesn't work and my corners bite big time.

The backing fabric carries on the theme from the front panel.

Maybe some of you knitters can help me out with a problem I have. This is the second set of booties I have made. So, yeah I'm just a beginner, but still. I SWEAR I'm knitting the blasted things the exact same way and the second one still ends up looking bigger than the first one. What am I doing wrong? Exact same needles, same yarn, two WAY different results (let's NOT even talk about the dropped stitch I found on the second one after I bound off).

As a way to hopefully make them seem closer to the same size, I soaked the second one in scorching hot water then threw it in the dryer. Note to self - empty dryer of clothes first if you intend to be able to find the bootie quickly. The dryer seemed to do the trick. And boy do these things get even softer after a run through it.

Next set is being done at the same time on the same set of needles. Period. Let's see if I can nip this in the bud.