For the Girls

This weekend, I finished two projects; one that took me nearly a year, and the other took merely a week.  Luckily, when I started the coat, I began the four-year-old size, as I had a feeling it would take me awhile.

Pattern: Tweedy Pie Swing Coat by Sharon Turner, yarn is Vanna's Choice in Sapphire (My daughter picked out the colour for herself, and it's quite striking).  It was also all in seed stitch.  I do like seed stitch rather a lot, and it looks great here, but I don't think I want to do another project where the entire thing is seed stitch for awhile. 

It fits, and she can button and unbutton it all by herself too.

 For the younger daughter, I had been eying the Whirligig Shrug by Stefanie Japel since I had bought the Interweave Weekend Knitting edition, and I cast it on right after finishing my Olympic projects.  I used Patons Classic Wool in Plum Heather, and I love how rich the colour is.  The project was sweet, quick, and made me feel cheerful just to pick this up and knit a few rows.  This is the 24 month size, and is a little big still on my 18 month-old, so the sizing seems accurate.

This little one loves sweaters, especially cardigans, so I thought this shrug would be sure to delight.  She hasn't actually let me know her opinion on it yet, as she was too busy trying to steal her sister's new coat...and then run away looking for all the world like Paddington Bear: