We all live in a tiny submarine

My friend is pregnant with her second baby, due in, eek, I think two weeks, and up until yesterday, I had made nothing for the baby. I made approximately eleventy billion things for baby #1 three years ago- sweaters, hats, quilts (yes, more than one, and I think as many as three?), toys, booties, everything. I was feeling increasingly guilty about my slacking on baby #2, so this weekend I got to it and made an adorable tiny submarine.

I had the yarn, needles, and pattern  in a project bag already, because I had all the best intentions of making my nephew a submarine about six months ago. You see how well that went. The pattern is "Tadpole" from the now-defunct online kid-sized knitting magazine Petite Purls. I'm still mad about that magazine. I was supposed to have two patterns in the very next issue, which was going to be fairy tale themed, and after I literally had both samples knitted, patterns written, and photographs taken for one of the samples, the editors emailed and said that they would not be continuing with the magazine, and they were sorry, but the fairy tale issue would not be published. I would have cried except that we were moving from California to Delaware in like three days, and I was so busy and already so upset that we were leaving my beloved Cali that I had no emotions left. (In case you're wondering, it was the Unicorn Hoodie and Woolbringer, and there's a knight's tunic to go with Woolbringer that I haven't done anything with yet because I need an 8-year-old boy to be the model. Haven't found one of those in my travels yet, but someday.)

Back to the submarine! I used leftover worsted wool blends to knit it, and it was pretty quick. I sort of thought it'd be bigger, but kids are little, so it will be fine. I made a couple mods to the pattern to make it better. Made a different periscope, because I think this one is cuter than the original pattern, and I knitted a propeller, because the toy looked unfinished without it.

After I made the sub, I thought, is the first kid going to be jealous that I made his brother something but not him? I didn't want to be responsible for a toddler temper tantrum, so just to be on the safe side I made Kai this alphabet set. I was dorking around on Pinterest looking at projects that use up quilting scraps and got the idea. It's just scraps of quilting fabric backed with black felt. I printed an alphabet, cut out the letters, pinned them to the fabric, sewed around the paper, cut out the letter. Easy, quick, educational, and it used scraps, which is something I need to do a better job of. My scrap bin overfloweth.