The end of a BIG PROJECT

This project has been many weeks in the making. It's a thank you/goodbye gift for the infant centre that Little Man has been going to for the last 2 years. The staff there have been great with him, more than happy to put in the extra one-on-one time he requires, and always wanting to know what else they could be doing to encourage his development. He has now reached the stage where he really is more of a toddler, even though he's not toddling yet, so next year he will be moving up to the toddler centre. This is also the last child we will have at the infant centre (all going to plan), so we wanted to give a big gift to say thanks for all the wonderful things they have done for both of our children.

The idea was to make one giant granny square rag rug, but it was going to be too heavy, and too hard to wash, and the outer layers were taking way too much fabric, so instead I made four separate rugs that are each about 60x60cm, which can be put together to make a big square, or laid out in a line or however they want really. If you look closely at the photos you can probably guess the order that I made them in, practice really does make perfect, and the last one I did is by far my favourite. Then I attempted a rag bowl, which worked out brilliantly, so I decided to make a set of them as well, but I can't seem to get them to turn out the same even following the same pattern, so they have kind of turned into nesting bowls. I still love the first one I made the best (the bottom one), it was the perfect size and shape, so I will keep trying until I figure out the secret recipe for crochet rag bowl perfection.

Just a little extra cuteness, Little Princess had to dress up as a Disney character for a birthday party in the weekend, and this is the Tinkerbell costume we put together. Doesn't she make just the cutest Tinkerbell ever? She already had the dress, tights and shoes, I just added white pompoms to her shoes with hot glue. I made the little cape at the last minute because it was a bit cold, I just cut a huge leaf shape out of some green fabric and fastened it at the front with a crochet flower brooch I made ages ago.