My parents were thirty years married last Friday. I wanted to make them something either practical or small, but I've already made most of the practical things my abilities permit (even for jokey things like "Knit matching hats, ho ho", I've made them both hats with the same pattern so that's kind of gone...) so I went for small.
One of my mother fondest sayings is "Birds in their little nests must all agree to live in peace and harmony." So I made two little birds in their little nest, with five pearly beads for eggs. (I'm child number four of five, and thirty years in the pearl anniversary, so Google tells me.)
This one is blurrier, but you can see the eggs!
The teeny birds are a pattern from Knitting Mochimochi, by Anna Hrachovec. The mammy bird is made from yarn leftover from a shrug I made my mother; unfortunately the only things I've made for my dad have needed bulky wool which would have resulted in a giant blobby bird. The nest was made by threading the beads through silver wire and then twisting it with round-nosed pliers. I do like my little nests!
In more family-related news, my brother's girlfriend is visiting from America. She brought me over this:
The chain started in Ithaca, where they used to live. I am very happy with it because
a) It combines books and food, two of my favourite things
b) Veggie recipes I've found in books here tend to be either sidenotes or bland bland bland. I like flavour!
She also tells me that originally their Grumpasauri were facing off against each other, but now they've teamed up on top of the bookshelf. Cute.
P.S. The cherry-blossom tree outside my house looks like this these days:
P.S. The cherry-blossom tree outside my house looks like this these days:
