She really likes oranges.

I seem to have a pompom making problem. This hood and mittens set has been finished, except for the pompoms, since mid April. I finally got myself some pompom makers to make it a little easier and now it's so much fun. They turn out the way I expect and, even better, I can make matching pairs.

We had a wonderful spell of warm weather starting Easter weekend. It was sunny and above zero. I wore my sweater, instead of a coat, for a walk with Maisie. It even rained once. Then last Thursday the wind came up, the temperature dropped, and it snowed. It's been cold all weekend. When I took these pictures is was about -7℃ (note to self: always check the weather before you take your toddler outside and let her play without mittens on). We took Abby outside with us and enjoyed watching her run around like a crazy thing after squirrel smells.

This hood is the sweetest knit. The colourwork is just enough to make it interesting and a little bit warmer. The lining makes it look so polished. I spent way too much time agonizing over which colour to use for the lining. I settled on the Saffron after quizzing other people but part of me still thinks the Grey Green (the colour in the pompoms) would have looked really nice. If Maisie's hair comes in dark the Saffron will be especially pretty though. I followed the author's suggestion of braiding the tails into pairs for easy fastening by little hands. This is the smallest size and looks like it will fit Maisie for quite a while. The pompoms are really the crowing glory of it. That big one bouncing along behind her as she walks around and collects this and that … it just makes me grin. There goes my little elf.

I was so excited about these mittens. I think I'd started planning them out in my head by the time I was halfway done the colourwork for the hood. I used the same chart for the body of the mittens and drafted my own pattern for the tips. It took me three tries to get them to come out the right shape and with a pattern that looked nice once it was kitted up. The mittens are lined with Saffron, just like the hood, so they are extra warm. Thankfully they are also kind of big so I am hopeful they will fit next winter since Maisie isn't likely to need them this spring. The snag with mittens is you can't pick up rocks while you're wearing them. I'm a softie (and had no idea how cold it really was) so I pulled them off to enable a bit of exploring. I was handed quite a few rocks during our little photo shoot but she kept the pink one and brought it inside.

I think this is my first pair of rubber boots since I was a teenager. I got them a month or so ago when I was shopping for something else. Rubber boots covered in flowers just yell "spring time" and with many weeks to go before I was going to get anywhere near my garden I was happy for the reminder.

More details for Maisie's hood and mittens are on my Ravelry project pages.

Was last week nice for you? It was full of lovely, everyday moments for us. Maisie has a new trick she can do on her giraffe bike. It freaks me out to see her do it but as long as the bike is on the carpet she doesn't seem to hurt herself when she falls off. Rob introduced her to snow for the first time. She wasn't overly enamoured with the experience but there will be plenty more opportunities to discover how great it is. Right now I'm more interested in water. Last Tuesday we got close enough to zero that things started melting just a bit and this week there is a drip, drip, drip off the house in the afternoon. I'm excited to rediscover my garden and share the joy of freshly picked peas with Miss Maisie. We're going to give broccollini a try this year.

Much fun was had one afternoon last week by putting yoghurt drops into an empty bottle and dumping them out again. Many landed on the floor. Abby and Ollie ate them. I got to drink my tea. We went out for breakfast on Saturday morning. Instead of her usual boots we put Maisie's shoes on so she'd be able to walk around at the restaurant. She really likes the robots and flapped her feet around and smiled at them while Rob got her hat and scarf on. Saturday afternoon was cake and tea to celebrate my recent birthday. I made this cake and it was great. I added raisins and was pretty generous with the icing. It's delicious and not too sweet. And it's great for breakfast the next day.

I managed to get in a little crafting this weekend. Socks for me are finished. Socks for Maisie are started. A little quilt top id finished too. I've got some minky for the backing. I usually like to stick to all natural materials when I'm sewing because they just feel nicer to me but the minky is so soft. I've been warned that it's kind of stretchy to sew with and to use lots of pins. With luck I get it done sometime this week.