Lucas's Big Birthday Surprise

But first, I had to finish the baby blanket for a Japanese cousin. It turned out nice, and I went to mail it at UPS, unaware of the prices I was facing. Did you know that it costs $138 to mail a package to Japan with a tracking number? Luckily, the US Postal Service option tracks it till it leaves the US and only costs $38. I think DHL or some other shipping company would've been a little cheaper, but good to know for future shipments! And yes, the blanket made it without getting lost, and I got some precious pictures of Haru with it.


So this came through an email from Lion Brand, I think, and they actually offered the pattern for free! Now this is precious because Lucas has a YouTube channel called Broughnut Doughnut (shameless plug, but don't click on that unless you're a fan of violent zombie films!), and his original "channel art" was that very doughnut from The Simpsons (of course, now it's an RPG launcher, I think - can't make one of those).


The only problem with this is that it's crocheted, and I haven't crocheted since I was about 15 years old. Of course, I hadn't knitted in years either, and I picked that back up! Pulled out my grandmother's McCall's Needlework Treasury, and that was all I needed to get started.


Okay, by the time I got THIS far and had to join colors, I had jumped to YouTube. Pencil drawings can only get one so far in life.


Now I was working on this while Lucas was at summer camp at University of Houston for two weeks, but I had to take a little break for the Blue Angels show at Pensacola Beach (they're tiny in the center)!


Dean took a nice pic of Drew and me at The Gulf afterwards.


And this was after a huge rainstorm at sunrise.


Speaking of storms, THIS was during a really crazy thunderstorm the next day, and Jake nearly jumped in my lap.


Okay, here's the completed donut flat. I ran out of mustard yarn, so had to use tan yarn at the end, but that makes sense anyway, since it's the inside.


So you put the ends together and whipstitch, stuffing as you go...


Halfway stuffed with fiberfill...


And the final donut - yay! This actually felt like really frosting a donut, because I had one arm inside smoothing out stuffing while stretching the outside to get the lines even.


Here's the bottom view.


We now take another break for a new Mexican restaurant which serves a Coronarita, which I've never seen before. Anybody ever have one of these? The tiny beer bottle slowly drains into the margarita - sort of an odd taste, and honestly more trouble than it was worth.


And finally, with SPRINKLES!!!!


I knitted most of these on the plane going to pick up Lucas in Houston; even sat in the airport for 3 hours knitting before it was time to get him, and no, I didn't get any funny looks....why do you ask?


This is a mighty big donut, and honestly weighs about 10 pounds, I think.


So tasty!


So now I'm all fired up on crocheting, and have a bath mat in mind for Drew's new apartment - shhh! Oh wait, I've got to finish that second sock first...