Look away Kathirynne!!!!!

You have been warned! All surprises will be spoiled if you continue to read....

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So I posted off my big box to my miniswap partner today. The kids and I had this (*Leila the kitten is helping me type and keeps pressing backspace)...try again: The kids and I had lots of fun with this, although they have been really busy and weren't able to make as much as they had hoped.

I made a box each for the children to keep their CDs, treasures, makings or whatevers in:

A hat each for the kids. I'm actually so happy with these two patterns that I've come up with (and the variations) that I'm going into production with them. There is something really fun about knitting hats-and I was greatly inspired by a week in Vermont and going to the ski slopes, AND seeing how much hats cost in the ski shops.

These two have the star detail at the top.

I realise that it's the wrong time of year to be thinking about selling hats, so I'm just going to happily knit away and then set up an ETSY shop in the autumn. [And if you haven't discovered ETSY yet, then check it out.]

Ella made this little pocket pal and a little pocket for it to go in.

I had great plans for the wonderful drawings that the boys did, but my printer/scanner has decided to break down on me and I had to make do with some earlier ones I had already put onto transfer paper.

Remi drew this excellent fish which I stitched onto a pocket for holding fly fishing flies.

Kit drew this lovely fish which is actually hard to see...that got put onto a library bag for the family, complete with a little felt library card holder.

My very talented son Oscar drew this snowboarder totally out of his head for me (I am sojealous of his ability to do this and he does it all the time)...he did some other designs, but I couldn't do anything with them because of the stupid scanner. You may have to click these larger to be able to see the designs. I turned those into felt ski goggle holders (hence the goggles in the photo, so you understand).

I also made this apron with the mother bird flying down to her nest for another mother of 4. This was the inspiration for the bird quilt-I wanted to make my birds look more like birds.

And lastly I whipped this up yesterday as I'd seen in on Betz White's blog and thought it was so cute I had to have a go. It's from a thrifted jumper I felted of course.

It was so quick and easy to make and really sweet, I think. Ella discovered that it is a very good little bag for carrying around a sleepy kitten.

So now you know what's been keeping me busy for the last month or so. It was of course, lots of fun and I only wish the kids had done a bit more. It's great to be pushed into creating for someone else as it really makes you think about doing new and different things. I just hope they like them.