Minkee!

I had heard of minkee, and when I finally felt it, it was beyond what I had imagined. Soft -- so soft! -- that you just want to keep touching it. I had also heard it was hard to stitch, so I hesitated to buy any.

But when I saw the fabulous blankets my nieces' Aunt Barb made for their new babies, I just had to try it. (Here's a photo of the one she made for Andrew.) Only one place in town carries Minkee, and they had a limited selection, but I bought some to make a small blanket for a newborn daughter of one of Brian's colleagues. Not hard to do! And quick.

Here's what I learned:
(I like this feature on Jocelyn's blog, so I'm doing it, too.)

1. Buy a lint roller and keep a vacuum or two handy when you work with minkee. There is amazing fuzz everywhere! Did I say everywhere? I meant EVERYWHERE!

2. Minkee is a cheap high. I don't care how bad you feel, working with that amazingly soft fabric makes you feel better. It does slip and slide, but somehow it just didn't bother me, because I was trying to hold that cushy-soft minkee in place.

3. Minkee is almost as good as bubblewrap. It doesn't have that satisfying sound, but button pushers and bubblewrap poppers (Val, are you listening?) will love the dotted minkee. Those little dots can be pushed down and popped up forever. You can get a closer look at the bubble dots in the photo to the left (they look a lot like what are called popcorn stitches in knitting).