Sweater Update

I finished the back, left front and am almost done with the right front. Probably about 3 more inches.

Amazingly, all the pieces match up!!!! I added 2 inches in length since I am long waisted and didn't want it to me too short.

Can I finish it by Wednesday evening? I don't know. Maybe if I can get it done except the neck, I can finish that on the trip to San Diego.

We'll see.....I would be a bit further had I done my Sunday Night Marathon of family unfriendly shows (Footballers Wives Overtime & Desperate Housewives) after the kids went to bed but I was too tired! Plus, there is Halloween with pumpkins to be carved & Mummy Dogs to be made before we head out trick or treating.

A New Project

I realized I just can't look at another lace project at the moment that requires small needles and tiny yarn. Plus, it is finally cooling down in Arizona in the mornings.

So, I decided I needed to make this sweater. It is the Weekend Cardigan from Chiagu.com

I am knitting in Patons Shetland Chunky Tweed. I just can't see knitting a bulky 100% wool sweater for Arizona. I realized AFTER I bought this yarn with the help of one of my SnB ladies (you know who you are) with their 50% off employee discount at Michael's that I had bulky cotton in my stash. I can always make a second sweater.

I have visions of finishing this by next Wednesday night because we are going to San Diego on Thursday. Yeah, I am a dreamer because this is all I have knit in the past two nights. About 8 inches on the back.
We'll see what the weekend brings!

Feathery Lace Stole

Pattern: from Exquisite Little Knits, page 78-79.
Yarn: Art Yarns Wool/Mohair

Pre-blocking.

Post blocking. I wasn't sure what this was destined to be until this weekend. We have a friend whose 17 year old son committed suicide about 2 weeks ago because he was upset over his girlfriend dumping him. It is now destined for the "Mom" as a prayer shawl. I can't think of anything worse to have to go through as a parent.
Close up of the stitch pattern. A VERY easy knit. Only two rows that become very easy to remember after a couple of repeats.
We also went to the Goodyear Balloon & Air Spectacular on Saturday. Good gosh I hope they NEVER have this event at this venue again.

We arrived about 11 am and had about a 1 mile back up to get into the parking lot (about 10 minutes later and until we left, it was 5+ miles, single lane to turn left.....also the only way in). It took about 20 minutes but got right on the shuttle to be transported 1.5 miles or so. As you are driving up, you see a HUGE cloud of dust swirling around the event.

Yeah, it got worse once you got in since it wasn't just dirt, it was 2 inches of silt like dust that you had to walk in all over the place. This also meant that if you WANTED to sit on the ground to watch the planes, that was not going to work. However, for $20 additional per person (on top of the $20 adults/$15 children 5+), you could sit in the 98.7 Peak Patio and watch the planes. Um, not so much.

Needless to say, we took off after a couple of hours, long before the Blue Angels Show, and we were not alone. I think there were a lot of disappointed people. Not a very crowd friendly event.

Knitter's Tea Swap

I received my package yesterday and boy is it great! I had a hard time keeping Simon away from the chocolate so I photograph it!

From left to right:
Caramel Cheese Popcorn, an assortment of teas from Tea Gschwendner (O' Sullivan's FavoriteBlack tea, Candy Apple (I am sipping that now), Mr. Ollivander's Magic Potion, Gummi Bear & Gregory's), Franco Mints, and then chocolate, lots of CHOCOLATE!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bears, Chocolate Covered Almonds & then candy bars: Chocolate & Crisp, Chocolate & Almonds and Chocolate & Carmel.

And then there was YARN & a pattern. How did Christina know I love Knitpics Yarn and I have been looking at that pattern?

Two hanks of Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud in Midnight & 2 hanks of Knitpicks Shimmer in Turquoise Splendor that can be used in the Janet Lace Shawl Pattern. Gotta love a lace shawl knit on size 11 needles.

Thank you Christina!!!!!

Wednesday Musings

I saw this little convertible on my way to SnB last night. It reminded me of how much fun I had in my VW Cabrio convertible. Mine looked just like this but it was dark green with the taupe roof. Ah, I had a lot of fun with that car but then traded UP for my first minivan. I am on my 3rd minivan. Life changes but I sure did have fun in that car.

This is my current knitting project. It was my mindless vacation knitting. It is ArtYarns Merino & Mohair. The pattern is from Exquisite Little Knits.

The Wings of the Moth shawl is in time out because I am starting the 2nd chart and I can't seem to get the pattern to line up with the new markers, which means I need to count 400 stitches and figure where I went wrong!
I found this FREE Amy Butler Pattern online. I have just enough fabric left over from my bag to make one of these and maybe even a few flowers.
I'd probably have 5 more of the shoulder bags if I had fabric I liked because the Downtown Purse was such an easy pattern. Do I hear the call of a fabric store???? Why, yes, I think I do!

The New Baby in the Family

I am not sure exactly the family "name" but this is my niece, Nicola, in England.

The little one is Isabella, her daughter.
Isn't she a cute little thing? All of a month old here.
Oh my, she makes me TIRED just looking at her! I sure do love babies, especially other people's babies! ;)))) I get to sleep through the night.

Amy Butler Downtown Handbag

I have never tried the Amy Butler Designs pattern before but I have to say, this was a VERY EASY pattern.

I picked up the fabric at Zoe's Trunk in Chandler on Sunday. The pattern called for 3/4 yard but if I had bought 1 yard, I could have also made the Uptown Handbag. I have "some" fabric left but not enough...unless I make it just a wee bit smaller. I might do that and put the green on the outside with short handles.

Inside of the bag. Next time I will add a cell phone pocket inside.
I used padded interfacing instead of the one recommended for the whole thing. It gives the bag some nice structure and it stands up on its own!

I am thinking holiday gifts.....maybe.

Saturday

I actually saw this car on Friday night when I dropped Hannah off at a sleepover (they went to sleep at 9:30 pm and NOT 1 am, thank goodness!).

The decal says, "Powered by Jesus".

Saturday was spent relaxing after we brought home a new addition to the family.

Here name is Leah, actually Princess Leah, to go with Obie Wan. Obie came named...so we stuck with the theme.
She is a Siamese Lynx mix, they think. She is 8 weeks old and has gorgeous blue eyes when they are open.
I also stopped by Zoe's Closet, a fabric/quilting store I have passed 100's of times but never went inside and picked up this Amy Butler Designs Madison Bag . I got lucky too because they were having a 26% off sale in honor of being in business for 26 years.

I'll have to dig in my stash to find fabric OR go back today. We went there yesterday on our way home from getting Leah so I had the whole family in the car and had limited browsing time!

Final Day in Fort Lauderdale

We spent it at the pool & at the beach!

The hotel had stuff for the kids around the pool on Saturday.

That included face painting.

Hmm...maybe Simon will be a tiger for Halloween.

Hula Hoop contests. (I still can't hula hoop but boy, some of those little girls were good!)

They built sand castles & boogy boarded with Auntie Naomi.
And searched for buried treasure with David.
After our last day of fun in the sun, we headed out for dinner before Dad & my sister, Naomi, headed down to Miami Beach.

Thank you Naomi for driving down from Orlando to see us!!!

Grandpa & the winkies in the hotel lobby.
The moon over the ocean. This is the view from our balcony. Who knew I could figure out the night setting on the camera??
And, some knitting content. I took 800 yds of lace weight yarn on vacation. Do you know how much I knit??? Maybe 100 yds worth.

I finished these for Alison before I left. She is ready to have her little boy very soon!

And, my sock pattern is in the new issue of "For the Love of Yarn".

Day 4: The Everglades

We drove down to Miami Beach (South Beach area) to pick up the kids from Dad & Linda.

Then, we took off for this Everglade tour park.
We took a ride on an airboat into the everglades.
Simon was looking for "stuff" in the water.
A view from the boat after we were through the channel. It was hot but thankfully, not mosquito season so we were saved getting eaten alive. I was glad I had brought 3 bottles of water along.
Next to some alligator characters.
Amazingly, we actually saw an alligator in the water. I figured we were dreaming about seeing on on the boat tour.
After the boat tour, I was "chosen" as a volunteer to "wrangle" an alligator. Theoretically, this alligator.
In the end, it was only 'THIS" little alligator.
Simon also wanted to wrangle it but David & Hannah wanted no part of it!
After we got back to Fort Lauderdale, we found a great Japanese/Thai restaurant. Sounds strange but actually just served food from both countries along with sushi. Great food at very reasonable prices.

Day 2

We arrived at our "real" hotel on Wednesday. We stayed at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa. This is the view from our balcony on the 10th floor with Hannah modeling the robe from the closet.

Before our room was ready, the kids played in the pool.
And had lunch by the pool...
We went out for dinner on the beach. It was so nice with the ocean breeze. You can tell it was windy but it took the edge off of the humidity.

We saw this pirate on the way to the car. Simon LOVES pirates...obsessed is actually a better word so we needed a photo.

After dinner we took a walk on the beach in the moonlight.

It wasn't windy at all! Yeah, right.

Day 1

A whole lotta travel!

We left the house at 6 am...as we round the corner from the house, my check engine light goes on. Ack, back to the house, get everyone and all the luggage into David's much smaller car. It was tight.

Simon & I dropped off David & Hannah to fly Continental, parked the car & then took the bus to Terminal 3 for US Airways.

This was Simon's first airplane ride that he remembers.

I asked if Simon could look at the cockpit with the full expectation that they would say no. However, the co-pilot took him up there and let him jump into the pilot's seat.

Doesn't he look at home???
After a long day of flying, we all met up in Fort Lauderdale and headed to our hotel to get something to eat and SLEEP!