Trish was on a craft marathon earlier this week. She made me a cute little felt tea bag and I think she's on her 50th sock cat and she's started one of Camilla Engman's crocheted animals. Considering that we just figured out how to crochet last night she's being very brave. The tutorials over at nexstitch were incredibly helpful. Our last attempt at crocheting ended in rage and frustration. I'm not sure what the difference was but this time went much more smoothly. Also on the list of things to try: the ripple blanket as seen on Alicia Paulson's blog posie gets cozy. I estimated that it would take me 20 years to finish one of those blankets, seriously.

Here's the most recent sock monkey. It's currently in the mail making it's way up to Tofino for Shawn's birthday. I thought he might like to have his own personal super hero.

I finished a set of sock monkeys for the twins (arriving soon!) and their big brother, Eli. But before I gave them away I made them do some work...

Here's the trio in the shrubbery outside of my apartment. 

And one more for the close-up. 

Erin gave me a quick tutorial on how to make sock monkeys. I can't believe I haven't been making them for the past 7 years of my life. I brought over a half finished monkey to show Trish and she was inspired to make a cat version. We couldn't stop working on them until they were done and now they are best friends...

Trish's friend Jari showed her how to make gyoza from scratch. Now we want to eat it everyday! The miso soup doesn't look so appetizing in the pot but when it makes it to the bowl it's looking much better. We paired it with Lindeman's Pinot Grigio. I'm sure that's not quite the right thing but it tasted good to us.