Back from the holiday madness!!

The holidays were a great time!! The kids had 2 weeks off from school-the first week was spent with family. LOTS of family. EVERYDAY. It was totally fun & great. We went on lots of day trips and also just hung out here at the house. The 2nd week we went to Disneyland with friends and that was also fun. Our family loves Disneyland (including the parental units) and I find it kind of relaxing to just walk around, play games in line and have no set schedule - just following the kids' lead.


The holiday knitting did get done. Lots of late night and early morning knitting :o). But I give you a:

hat for DD#3

a hat for DS#1
a sweater for DS#2

gotta love these buttons!! He does.

The piano scarf disaster for DD#1. This scarf I wound up knitting 100 rows a night at the very end down to the wire. It looked great when it was finished - the white was very white against the black; however the edges were curling so I decided to block it. I put it in a bowl of cold water and left it unattended for about 15 minutes. When I came back the water in the bowl was a muddy brown and the white of the scarf was no longer white - it was a tea brown color, but not an even brown color - it was splotchy. The keys did not stand up anymore, and it smelled AWFUL (I guess wet wool does that). I laid it out on our bed and left for the day in a decidedly downcast mood. The scarf dried and the keys stood back up again. It was still off color, but DH said that DD wouldn't know what the scarf was "supposed" to look like and that I should still give it to her. I gave it to her, but I could tell that she was not thrilled. I'm not sure what I did wrong and I haven't asked anyone yet, the dissapointment is still too fresh.

DD#2 closeup of her t-shirt. I love this yarn and the pattern

The T-shirt. She loves it and has worn it over and over again already. It has been washed (in the washing machine) and hung to dry several times and still looks the same as it did when it came off the needles. Gotta LOVE that!

DH's sweater did not make it to the finish line-but his birthday is in March-AHH another deadline :o).

Sweater Done -almost

DS#2 sweater is done except for buttons.

Yarn: Vanna's Choice by Lion Brand

Colors: Oive Green, Dusty Blue and Pea Green

Size US 9 needles

Overall a very easy knit. I think that the arms are going to be too short. I will wait until DS puts it on - if they are too short I will pick up around the cuff and knit in the Olive Green an additional little cuff.

However -- this is the front left side. I REALLY don't like the way it looks with the yarns carried around the edge. I'm not quite sure what to do about it. Maybe a single crochet edge??? Or 2-3 rows of ribbing???

If I were to knit this again, I would probably opt for some kind of variegated or solid color. Although it looks really cute in the stripes, it was a little bit of a hassle carrying the yarns up the side. If I chose to do it in stripes I would cut the yarns at the neck edge and reattach them at the sides. I think that would have given a much better appearance at both the neck edge and along the left side where the buttons will be going. I am toying with the idea of knitting 2 of these for my sister who is expecting twins in May. That would be kind of cool.

Mystery Shawl Along #6

I give you Artyarns Ultramerino in colorway #107. This picture is really pretty true to color.

Wound almost the moment Igot home with it!
Knit into a swatch for the Shawl!!! It is really yummy to knit with.

This swatch is on size US 6 addi Turbo Lace needles. I purchased both the yarn and the needles at Full Thread Ahead in Los Altos (love that store!!!). I wanted to go down a needle size and was going to get bamboo needles - I truly like the bamboo the best, just the way they feel. Hollis at the store convinced me to stay with the size 6's and then showed me the addi lace needles. I wasn't sure about either, but I decided to give them a try on her recommendation - I LOVE these needles for this!! And I feel the size 6 is perfect for this project.

What might you ask happened to: Mystic Waters? Secret of the Stole? Bee Fields? Hanami? Icelandic Shawl? and....and.....well......I can't seem to remain project monogamous. As I look forward to the new year and think about New Year's resolutions I realize that the only one I made last year I was unable to keep. I tried to dub 2007 as "The Year of the Finished Project". I was going to finish all those project that are already on the needles and not start anything new. Cough, Cough, I failed miserably :o) Maybe this year I could set a limit on the started projects - say, oh I don't know, not more than (insert number here).....Nah, that won't work!!!

"friend" dishcloth

This is my "friend" dishcloth hot off being blocked!!! These two mid-November cloths were really fun to knit and watch the pattern emerge. Now on to the December cloth.....

"my pal"

The latest dishcloth is cuter than it appears here. This is the best of about 10 photos that I took. It says "my pal" and has flowers. I love the message and also the seed stitch border.

There were actually two different dishcloths to make this time around in the dishcloth group and I did make both (finished 2 days ago) but the 2nd one is blocking. I should be dry by tomorrow.

It looks a little bit like knittin'

After all was said and done in the birthday department, and the cleaning done, there was knitting last night!! Oh, the joy of it. Just the right front and the finishing to do on this and DS#2 has a sweater for Christmas.

Off to do more knitting!!!

Birthdays NEVER end!!

Around here your birthday can drag on for a week or more depending upon where in the week your birthday lands. DD#3's birthday was last Tuesday - she had her class party and my in-laws came over for dinner to celebrate with her on her actual day. All very nice and cozy and my daughter loved it.

Round #2: The Friend Party

We had her party for all her friends yesterday which entailed another cake. She has always admired those "doll" cakes with the barbie sticking out of the top and the skirt being the cake so.... I made one for her.

The cake before any type of frosting. It is not a diet cake - lots of butter, eggs, and chocolate and more chocolate - it is her favorite cake so I had to use that recipe. I should however say that this cake recipe is for a bundt pan and usually takes 50 or so minutes to bake. In the "skirt" pan it took 2 and a half hours to bake all the way through - AAARGH!!!! It is extremely amazing (and also very lucky) that after the center was cooked the outside was NOT hard as a rock. It worked out just fine, but next time I use this particular pan I will choose a different recipe!! DD is helping to decorate the cake. We made the bigger flowers out of fondant and the really tiny ones are sprinkles that I found in the baking section of Safeway. She had a great time putting all the flowers on and really enjoyed being part of the process - from selection to completion. It was a lot of fun for me too :o)

Ta-Da! The finished product!

I don't know why she didn't want any of the little flower on the back, but it was her decision.

The second cake because I didn't think the doll cake would be enough to feed the kids and their parents. It turned out that I was right.

Very basic decorating. I was tired and out of creative juice by the time this one came around.

Instead of treat bags this year, I decided to assemble these and hand them out. They are little note pads for the kids to draw on. I printed the labels and stuck them on and for a little extra pizzazz I added the stars. The yarn so that they can wear these like a necklace is the yarn I dyed at knitting camp (she thought that was so-o cool) and there is a colored pencil stuck in the top of the spiral so the kids can take these with them anywhere and have an implement to draw with. All in all I think it was a success!!

NOW....that is not all said the cat in the hat, that is not all!!!!!

We still have lunch today at the house for her "family" party. My mom, sister, brother-in-law, nephew and in-laws will all be here around noon-time to celebrate. Good thing there is left-over cake from yesterday :o)

Not much knitting I am afraid to say :o(.