More progress!

I just bound off the body of Angel's sweater! I'll start on the sleeves after she goes to bed. It's gotten to the point now that if she sees me working on it, she'll figure out what it is. I'm very happy with how it looks so far; exactly how I had planned.
I've used a skein and a half of the pink for the body, and will probably use a skein for each sleeve. It's taking less yarn than I'd anticipated. ☺ I still have three full skeins, plus some, so I'm going to have leftovers! I love this yarn. And I love this sweater; pretty, simple, and so soft. And I'm 98% certain it's going to fit.

Working on a new pattern...

I'm working on writing down the pattern for lace fingerless mitts that I'm making for my sisters for Christmas. I've got it written down, and now I'm knitting a set, using the pattern as I've written it, to make sure that I've got it right. I'm glad, because I've already found two glaring errors. So off I go now, to fix my mistakes, and hopefully I'll be ready to publish soon!

In the meantime, I'm also working on Princess's poncho, and planning a sweater for a new niece, who will hopefully not be arriving until February. She's been trying to come early, so I'd appreciate prayers for my sister Sara, and her baby Evellyn. Thanks!

Progress has been made...

I've finally picked up Angel's Christmas sweater again. Here's a picture of what it looks like today. I had Princess try it on, to make sure that the sizing was right, but I didn't take a picture of that. Anyway, it was slightly big on Princess, and came to her waist, so I think I'll do another inch or two, then increase a bit...Angel's shape is already beginning to change; she's got hips!

Anyway, that's all I've got time for tonight. Just wanted to get the update up. ☺

Finished the mittens!

I finished Angel's mittens last night, and dyed them with grape koolaid today. Here's the before picture:

And the after:
I was a little worried that they were darker than she wanted, but when she saw them drying, she gasped and exclaimed, "I love them!" I like them pretty well, myself! They were easy, fun and quick. Of course, now Princess tells me it's time for me to work on her mittens. She doesn't know she's getting some for Christmas. ☺

Looks good, but doesn't fit...

I started this project yesterday. My oldest daughter's mittens from last year are too little, so we overdyed them and will give them to my middle daughter in her stocking at Christmas...and Angel needs new mittens!
I found this lovely cable pattern in "Vogue Stitchionary Volume 2", which is a book I'd love to get for Christmas. I've checked it out from the library numerous times, just to look through it and get ideas. Anyway, I thought this cable would look terrific on the back of a mitten. Okay, backing up...first thing I did was trace my daughter's hand in my knitting knotebook. Then I measured it, and wrote down all the important measurements: wrist, hand circumference, hand length, thumb circumference and length, etc. Then I started swatching. I decided I wanted a nice tight fabric for these mittens, so I picked size 6 needles to use with the worsted-weight yarn. I got 6 stitches per inch, over stockinette knitted in the round. Since her hand has a circumference of 6 inches, and cables tend to "pull in" the fabric, I decided that 38 stitches should be enough for nice, snug mittens. I cast on and started knitting. Several hours later, I set the mitten-in-progress down, thinking I probably should have her try it on before finishing. It's a good thing I did.

♥

This morning, I had her try it on, and it's way too tight. The cable pulls in a lot more than I thought it would. My first clue should have been the fact that the stockinette-and-cable part was narrower than the ribbing. Oops. Back to the design notebook... I think I'm going to have to do some increasing after the ribbing in the area where the cable will be, and maybe go up a needle size after the ribbing. The good news is she loves the design!

♥

In other news, we are keeping the cats. Nobody responded to my email about who owned them, except one neighbor who was of the opinion that the previous owners didn't take proper care of them and they'd be better off with us. So the girls and I sat down and came up with proper names for them. The fluffy orangey one is Cashmere, and the spotty one is Emily or Emmaline, depending on who you ask. I wanted to name her Intarsia, but the girls wouldn't hear of it. They live outside, for the time being; hubby put his foot down on that point. We'll just wait until he falls in love with them... poor kitties... it rained last night. I think I'm going to look through my pile of wood scraps in the garage and see if I can come up with some sort of shelter for them, for when the weather is bad.

I'm afraid we've been adopted...

Yesterday, two cats showed up in our back yard, and haven't wanted to leave. This one climbs up into my lap whenever I go out there. And he/she (haven't been able to get a good look yet) seems to be the jealous type...if I start petting the other cat, he/she gets in the way and even paws at my hands. The girls have been calling him/her "Milo", after a cat in a movie.
This one is smaller, maybe a year old kitten. I'm pretty sure it's female, which is good; Angel calls her "Elizabeth", Princess calls her "Felicity".

We haven't decided to keep them, exactly...I sent out an email to my neighborhood to see if we could find out who they belong to. But if I can't, I'll have to figure out what to do with them. I haven't ever owned a pet myself, and don't know a whole lot about cats. Advice, anyone?

Halloween

Now that Halloween is over, I've found time to upload the pictures! Here is Dolly, as Queen Lucy of Narnia. I made this costume a few years ago, for Princess. Dolly loves wearing it for dress-up, and she didn't mind not having a new costume.

Here's Princess, as Felicity, again...

And Angel, as Betsy Ross!

I sewed together some strips of red and white fabric, and put a few separate ones in her basket, as if it was her sewing basket, and she was working on a flag. She did a great job, explaining to the clueless neighbors who Betsy Ross was.

And here's one of all three girls, at the costume contest. None of them won, but that's okay. Their costumes were definitely the most original, and probably the most well-made, if I do say so myself. ☺

I thought of taking pics of the worst costumes I saw...like the approximately size 20 woman in the size 10 spandex "Robin"(of Batman and Robin) costume...Yikes! Or the very pregnant teenager in the much-too-tight-minidress...I think she was dressed as a hooker. But I decided it wouldn't be very nice to show that. And I'm a nice person.

Anyway, Halloween's over. Now I can get back to Christmas knitting! ☺