finished & started

The EROS shell for dd#2 is finally done! It was actually completed a week and a half ago but we went on vacations and then had family in town. I am really, really pleased with it. DD#2 loves it and has worn it on several occasions already.

Looks much better on the model than on the floor :o)
I am really proud of how this fits. It is long enough....

The armholes are not too small nor are they too large.....

It also looks good from the back.

Eros Drifter's Shell

Started: 6/16/2009

Finished: 7/18/2009

Needles: US6 & US 7

Yarn: Lion Brand Trellis

Color: Rainbow

The true verdict is now DD#1 wants one in this yarn and this colorway! Cool!

The start of another shirt for DD#2. "Very Berry T-Shirt"

Black Yarn: Lion Brand Wool Ease Worsted Weight

Multi-color yarn: Adiafil-Fluo trends

They both knit up to the same measurements in the swatches which was just slightly larger than called for. A little math and away I go!

On the whole my children are pretty good natured and listen pretty well. There are times when each of them can be very defiant and disrespectful. I was lamenting an extremely frustrating day to a friend of mine. A day where the kids were defiant and I was less than patient and definitely not the kind of mom I strive to be. My friend recommended this book to me as a good tool. It took me considerably more than 10 days to go through it. I found each chapter full of "food for thought". It was not what I had expected at all.

This book was all about causes and effect. It was about modifying parental behaviors and expectations. Not letting any consequences slide, or letting the children be disrepectful, but more about some of the things that lead up to a blow up and how to stay calm in response to said blow ups and poor behaviors. I wound up reading and thinking about each chapter for a few days while I tried to implement some of the helpful tools that I wanted to use. Then I moved on to the next chapter and went back over the previous chapter. I used plenty of highlighter and took copious notes (you would think I was back in school or something!!), but I believe that it has helped our family tremendously. My kids still act up and act out - they are still kids!, but I have better tools in my toolbelt to help me deal with these outburts in a calm manner (I wish I could be calm all the time!). I found this book truly helpful and wanted to pass along this little tip in case anyone else might need it.

finished!.....or is it??

I finally finished my daughter's EROS shell. Isn't is lovely? The picture truly does not do it justice. The colors are much more vibrant and the ribbon bits give it a really interesting texture. My daughter loves it - all that is left is to sew the shoulder seams together. My daughter wants to try it on.......oh, my........the armholes are too snug. So snug infact that the unsewed shoulder seams are not holding together!!

A picture of the too small armholes!! What was I thinking?....is her body the size of a 3 year old?
ripped back to the start of the shoulder shaping

So......this pattern is intended for adults. I did some math (there's the first problem) and figured out my daughter's circumference times stitches per inch to decide how many stitches to cast on. All was well. That part fits fine. Modified the pattern a bit so that I can knit in the round - so much faster for me!! Great, that worked. Measured how long she would like the shirt to be from her armholes to the bottom.....fine! Split the shirt into front and back - Figured out the armhole decreases - just right! Great! I was getting so close. Then, I'm not sure what happened, my measuring tape decided to lie to me!! I measured from her armpit to her neck and got 5 1/4", knit just shy of that put in the shoulder decreases, joined the shirt front and back together to knit in the round for the collar, bound off, put the shoulder seams together with stitch holders and let the daughter try it on.....EEEEEKK!! No dice! This was in the morning. That night at about 10:30 I undid the bindoff and ripped all the way back to the end of the shoulder decreases. I noticed that some of the stitches were slipping down into my work so I decided to catch those with more stitch markers and put the rest back on the needles. Tinked down to where the shoulder decreases started, caught and wove back up the stitches that slipped and had everything ready to knit at 12:30. What a SLOW and painstaking process!! Remeasured daughter from bottom of the armpit to her neck - hmmmm - she now measured 7" - she must have grown this much since the end of June - it could not have been my error!....could it??? Back to the knitting and hopefully it will be completely done soon!!

This and that

11 more squares on the quilt (although most of the other people doing this are done!)

This is a close up of the fabric I used for these squares. I didn't have enough of the blue so I used some of the green again. I love making these - they are soooo fun!
Our family finished another puzzle

And started a new one

This one is going very slowly - I think the pieces are too small for all the kids to work on it. The cousins have been working on it too.

Lots of progress being made on the cross stitch stocking and the knitted shell. They just don't really look all that different than the last photos :o)

sewing & knitting

These are little bags that I made for my youngest's class just at the end of the school year. A parent had donated some lavender sprigs and they needed little sachets to put the flowers into. They measure 2 1/2 inches by 3 inches and are made with leftover fabric from my daughter's dress. The yarn is just random yarn that I had laying around.

Oh Yeah....I had to make 54 of them....One for each child

Finished up the 2nd ball of yarn which brought me to 9 1/2 inches from the bottom.

My daughter would like it to be long. We measured her and she wants the shirt to be 14 inches from the arpit to the bottom. As of right now it is just over 12 inches - so a little less than 2 inches to go until I split it for the armholes. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!! Now, it should surprise no one, especially me that the other two daughters want one of these. I might have to take a little break and knit with "real" yarn for a bit!!