Fancy Nancy Blanket

When my third daughter who is now 10 was 3 years old, she loved the Fancy Nancy books. These books were so fun to read. Fancy Nancy is a child who uses "big" words in her everyday conversations where she could use smaller words. My daughter got such a kick out of this and we read these books EVERY.DAY.BEFORE.NAPTIME. Did I tell you we read them every day?? I can recite some of them by heart which is amusing to my husband when he would read them before bedtime and I would be in the kitchen reciting right along with him :o)

One of the little cousins was turning 3 and I saw this "no-sew" blanket on sale at JoAnn's. I just had to get it. I have made these before and they a super quick and cute.
I just had to take a picture of the cutting lines!! The ones I had purchased years ago did not have these lines, you had to measure them for yourself. I guess that wasn't easy enough! It did make the blanket go even faster.
Here it is all knotted up and ready to go. I wish there had been one of these when my daughter liked Fancy Nancy. It is fleece and oh so soft and warm. The recipient was thrilled!

We also got her started on her own Fancy Nancy collection :o)

Check out Tami's blog for more finished projects.

Work-In-Progress Wednesday

I am desperately wanting to start on the next Christmas stocking!! Filling in all these little bits and then knowing that the outlining is looming (I know, outlining is a favorite for some :o) is making it very hard to stay focused. But stay focused I did!

Before

After

And then...because I just couldn't stay all THAT focused.....

I pulled out my Granny Stripe Blanket that was started two years ago. It got banished to the box when newer, more shiny projects came my way, but I decided to bite the bullet and just finish it. I had seen so many beautiful granny stripe blankets out there lately that they inspired me to take out mine. Well, lo and behold, there was really not that much to do on it. One last stripe made it the right length and I have been sewing in ends a little at a time. Once the ends are sewn in I will only need to make a border. Whoopee!! It should be finished soon...unless I get distracted again :o)

All piled up in it's Granny Goodness!

16 year old daughter last night said, "WOW! How beautiful, when did you start this one?"

Tuesday Tallies

It is Tuesday once again, and I have faithfully made up my one a day project pieces. I am really loving this way of working (for a whole two weeks now!). When I am done with 7 of one project, I move on to the next and when I am done with all three of my projects, I am free to work on something else. I finished my required pieces two days ago and pulled out the granny stripe afghan from Attic24 and began working on that. Amazingly enough, there was not as much left to do as I thought - weave in the ends and put a border around it - really not that much! I'm not quite sure why it wound up banished to a box?? But without further ado, I present today's tallies:

7 more fish. I think I will start sewing these guys together soon - I have more than 100 of them so far.

7 more hexi puffs - 14 altogether

7 tiny granny squares - 14 altogether - my plan is to sew this together in panels so the next square up for next week will by a two color square. Half one color and half the other. I'm not quite sure how this will work out, but I will fiddle around with the instructions for a bit.

As always, take a look over at Carole's blog for more Tuesday tallies.

Flounce Scarves!

The story: Over the summer we took a 10 day camping trip. First stop was Yosemite for 4 nights, then onto MacGrath Beach near Santa Barbara and then to Ventura Beach near San Louis Obispo. We had such a great time - camping is so fun and it just makes you relax. No electronics available, no specific time to do anything, no places you have to be - AHHHH! Anyway, we chose the beach camping spots so that we could visit a couple of colleges so our oldest daughter would start getting a "feel" of things. UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly were our stops for this trip. Well....no trip is complete without a visit to the local yarn shop. In Santa Barbara, we went into a wonderful little store with a very nice and friendly owner. She had a flounce scarf started and told us how easy and quick these things knit up. The girls were enchanted and just HAD to have one each. I thought I also needed one and if they were quick and easy.....well, that was just up my alley :o)

The story explains why there are four scarves in the above picture. The first one was a real pain to knit. I did not find this yarn to be easy at first. I am not good with the "just stab anywhere in the ribbon thing", I am way too controlling for that! I felt the need to spread out the ribbon, make sure I measured to the same spot on my needle each time so the stitches would all be the same length, and stab just under the top border - kind of fiddly! That said, by the time I got to the second scarf, things were going much more smoothly and I was clicking along pretty well. Four scarves in approximately five days. Not complete knitting days, days where we were playing cards, riding to a hiking spot, waiting at the chem tutor, etc. Each scarf averaged around 2.5 to 3 hours to make.

They do make quite a statement. I love the colors and the ruffles.

Each one measures 3" X approx. 55"

My colorway.

Color: 17 Teal-Black

Dye Lot: 147

US #11 Needles

The 10 year old's colorway.

Color: 22 Red-Fushia

Dye Lot: 152

US #11 Needles

She LOVES it and it matches the lining in her jacket!

The 13 year old's colorway.

Color: 20 Blue

Dye Lot: 150

US #11 Needles

You can't tell because of the red eye, but this scarf brings out the blue in her eyes quite well.

The 16 year old's colorway.

Color: 16 Lime Green

Dye Lot: 146

US #11 Needles

She has been wearing hers nonstop since I finished!

Take a look at Tami's blog for other finishes by talented crafters.

The Grand WIP!!

This Christmas stocking seems to be my project that is lodged in the Twilight Zone. It seems that no matter how much I work on it, it defies being finished. This project has been in the works on and off for a couple of years now. It is intended for my oldest daughter who is now 16 and will be going away to college in about 18 months (EEEKK!! I'm not ready for that) My big goal for this year is to finish this thing and have it hung on the mantle this Christmas.

I have done "most" of it. The cross stitches are almost complete, but it is the backstitching that needs to be done. I can tell you, I am not looking forward to that!! Hours and hours of backstitching - WOOHOO - exciting, NOT! Anyway, I am going to try to diligently work on this every evening until it is complete :o)
Yesterday when I took this photo, I had planned on working in this section - the plan was to try to fill in all the empty spaces so that next week when I took another photo, the difference would be very evident. However, when I sat down last night, I started filling in stitches on the book that is just to the left of what this photo shows. That space was just calling to me! I am hoping to have a huge update on this project by next week :o) Wish me luck!

And....to see all the other wonderful things being worked on, visit Tami's blog.

Tuesday Tallies

To help me to complete some of the larger projects that I wish to complete this year, the ones that have many pieces that will need to be created and then assembled, I have decided to participate in Tuesday Tallies on Carole's blog Gingerbread Girl. I have seen so many great things from that blog and I think it's a perfect way to be held accountable (at least for a little while!). So here goes - my first ever Tuesday Tallies:

My first 7 "hexi-puffs" for the Beekeepers Quilt. I have been seeing these all over blogland and wanted to make one myself. I held out for awhile on purchasing the pattern, but alas I fell and just HAD to have it!! These little guys are fun to make although not very quick - I am a VERY slow knitter though. The pattern calls for US#4 needles and larger yarn than I am using. The designer's hexi-puffs came out to about 3 inches across. I am using superfine sock yarn and US#1 needles. My hexi-puffs measure a scant 2" across. I will need quite a few to make a lap quilt :o)
This is my favorite hexi-puff. I just like the colors. I decided to follow the pattern for the cast on - this was different for me - I guess it is what someone would use for toe-up socks, but it is really cool how it knits flat. I wanted to follow the cast off instructions as well, but I couldn't find my itty bitty crochet hook so I am closing these up with the kitchener stitch.
I pulled out the fish again - I have less than 80 to go to have enough for a blanket. Here are the seven for this week. Lost and Wandering has a picture on her website and the link for the pattern is here. This has been on my WIP list for a very long time. Hopefully this will be the year that it gets finished!
I also started something new that I have had on my list. It is made up entirely of little granny squares. I need 157 in this color and more in other colors. These are the first 7.
The picture above is what the squares will be used for. It is called Gingerbread Bear Afghan and it is from the Fall 2010 Crochet World magazine. I fell in love with this and purchased all the yarn and then let it languish with all my other UFO's - now I have a plan and hope to make some good progress on this one this year as well.

A double digit birthday

Our fourth child (third daughter) turned 10! How did a decade pass by in the twinkling of an eye?

She celebrated at one of those jumpy places with just a few of her favorite friends and lots of family. She does not like huge crowds of people (kind of like her mom!) and just wanted to have fun with those most important to her.
One of her favorite things to do is read. She wants to read all the time!! So....she asked for a "book cake". I struggled with this for a long time and was talking to the six year old at breakfast the day before the party and telling him that I was trying to figure out how to make it. He told me, "Mom, a book is just a rectangle with a line down the middle!" What a little genius!! :o) I used a regular cake pan, came up with a fun little start to a book, and made a bookmark out of fondant. The birthday girl LOVED it!! And it was totally easy thanks to the six year old.

No birthday party is complete without a sleepover! This is breakfast the next morning.

Mickey Mouse chocolate chip waffles - a must have!

All of the 10 year olds favorite breakfast food - what more could one ask for

I still can't believe she is 10!