Cue the Olympic Music!

I finished the third dress last night, after the girls were in bed. Otherwise I would have posted pictures then. As it was, I had to wait until this afternoon to get the last pictures taken. I know you've seen some of these pictures already, but I wanted to put them all together in one post. So here they are!

Angel

Princess

Kitty

And here are all three together!

I totally did not plan this out; having all the hems the same distance from the floor. ☺It just worked out that way.

I'm pretty proud of my Olympic efforts. I suppose most people wouldn't think knitting should qualify as an Olympic sport, but then why are my hands and arms so tired? Ha ha. This is as athletic as I get these days. Though I am working on that; I've decided to get in shape....I'll let you know how that goes. So far, I've lost two pounds, I think.

Anyway, back to the dresses...I love the way these turned out. I'm already planning on making some more, in other colors. I'm thinking with the next ones, I'll do some kind of lacy pattern. And for the skirts, I've got some great floral fabric....

Something else...

I said in my previous post that I took two days off working on my Olympic project to work on "something else". Here it is!
It's a purse for me to carry when Hubby and I go to a ball next month. I found a basic "little black dress" at Walmart, and I had a pink knit lace cardigan(not handknit; I got it at the thrift shop). I needed a new purse. I had made a little tiny black quilted purse years ago, but it's not big enough to hold my camera, my phone, my driver's license and my pistol*, so I needed something bigger, but still pretty. I decided on cables, so I didn't want to use black. I searched through my stash for the perfect pink, and then I remembered this yarn, that my friend Andrea sent me last fall. It's 100% merino wool, and so soft. The purse is knit all in one piece; down the back and up the front, then seamed up the sides, and continued up the handle. I lined it with black fabric from my fabric stash. So this whole project cost me nothing to make. ☺ It's about 7 inches wide, 6 inches high, not including the handle. Just big enough for my previously mentioned list.

*Editing to add: Yes, I do have a license to carry concealed, just in case anyone wondered. As I always say, I'd rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

An "oops" fixed.

Okay, I know I said that Princess's dress was second...and I totally intended for it to be. I was knitting along, spacing the buttonholes exactly how I far apart I spaced them for Kitty's, and I decided that would be fine, and I would just make it so that it had five buttons instead of four. Then it would be long enough for Princess. So that's what I did. And it turned out too long for Princess's torso. It hung to her hips. I wanted the bodices to all end just a bit above their natural waists. So I tried it on Angel, and it fit perfectly; she and Princess have the same chest/waist measurement right now. But Angel's torso is longer than Princess's. For that matter, so are her legs. Long, and slim. She's built like my younger sisters. Anyway, Princess was disappointed that it wasn't hers, but I assured her that I'd be able to get hers done pretty quickly, and without any mistakes...at least that's the plan. So, yesterday, I got the skirt attached, and I'm glad I made it two inches longer than I'd originally planned. My girls love long dresses, and it should fit her all summer. And here's a pic of Angel, in her Olympic dress!

I've got less than half a week to finish the third one. Anybody want to take bets on whether I get done before the end of the Closing Ceremonies? I cast on for Princess's dress (again) last night, and got into the beginning of the stranded "USA" section, before my hands cramped up and made me quit. Planning on making some serious progress today. Gotta love the pressure...why did I take two days off from my project to work on something else?!? I'll post about the "something else" next time. ☺

♥

In completely unrelated news...Laura(of the "Laura Shawl") had her final chemo treatment yesterday. She'll have surgery again soon, this time to reverse her colostomy, and then after recovering from that, she'll be able to move back into some semblance of normalcy. I'm so happy for her. To my readers who joined in praying for her, thank you.

First of three dresses done!

I started on Friday, at exactly 6:30 pm, when the coverage of the Olympic Opening Ceremonies began. I decided to start with Kitty's dress, since she's the smallest of my girls, and I knew hers would get done most quickly.
I knitted just the top half of the dress. It's essentially a top-down seamless raglan cardigan, with short sleeves. I did garter stitch borders at the neckline, sleeve edges, waistline and button band(which is in the back). The rest is stockinette, with the "USA" stranded on the front. I used a dk-weight recycled cotton, and a size 4 circular needle. When it came time to separate the sleeves from the body, I simply bound them off and continued on the body.

I sewed the skirt on the machine, and attached it to the bodice by hand. The knit fabric of the bodice wasn't cooperating with the machine; it was stretching and distorting, so after stitching about two inches, I knew I was going to start over and do it by hand. Doing it that way gave me a lot more control, over both the knit fabric, and the skirt. The stitching line went in the "valley" between two purl ridges, and is invisible.

And here's what the back looks like. The buttons aren't anything special, just some plain white ones I had in my button stash. But they work.

♥

Kitty loves her dress, and Princess and Angel can't wait for me to get theirs done. But it's chilly here this week, so Kitty has to wait to wear hers anyway. I started on Princess's dress the same day I finished the knitting on Kitty's, and last night I finished the stranded "USA" part. I'm getting close to being able to bind off the sleeves. ☺

Oops, forgot to blog.

I've been busy for the last week. So busy I forgot to blog. Anyway, here's the product of some of that busy-ness. And the second one is almost ready for the heel.
These socks are for my youngest daughter, Kitty. I hadn't realized until now how big her feet are. They aren't baby feet anymore, which makes sense, since she is almost three. It just caught me off-guard. Anyway, a while back, I bought sock yarn to make socks for each of the girls. I let them pick any color of Knit Picks Palette sock yarn. (LOVE Knit Picks!) Kitty picked this yellow ("Semolina"), and said she wanted hearts on her socks. Yes, those are hearts; it's just not a great picture. I'll try to get some better pictures taken once I finish the second one. There are hearts on the back of the leg as well. I'm trying to get these done quickly, because the Olympics start tomorrow, and I'll finally be able to get started on my Olympic Challenge...three little girls' sundresses in two weeks. Definitely doable, if I'm not also working on a sock. So here's hoping I can get the second sock finished today. Or at the latest, tomorrow morning.

♥

On Sunday afternoon, Angel and I went to a political rally; a first for both of us. We really enjoyed it. But Angel doesn't like when I write about the same thing she writes about in her blog, so I'll just direct you there, so you can read what she had to say about the rally. ☺ http://thirdgradeangel.blogspot.com

Princess's shawl is done!

I spent most of today, working on the edging of this shawl, and now that it's bound-off and blocking, I don't think I like it. The edging, that is. Overall, I like the design, but I must have done something wrong on the edging.
Here's a closeup. I was expecting it to be more pointy, at the points, instead of just scallopy. And the bound-off edge is too tight, even though I went up two needle sizes for that. Oh, well. Princess loves it anyway. I'll continue to tweak the pattern, once I figure out just what I did wrong on the edging. Should I have switched to larger needles for the entire edging, not just the bind-off? I did add beads at the increase and decrease points of the edging, but I don't like how they won't stay exactly where I wanted them.

So, overall, I like the way this design came out, just not the edging. ☺

Progress made...

As you can see, I've made quite a bit of progress on Princess's shawl...it's almost 3 feet wide at the top edge now. I'll probably be able to get the body of it done today or tomorrow, so now I need to start thinking about what kind of border to do... I was planning on doing a ruffle, originally, but now I'm thinking of doing something more along the lines of the edging on the Swallowtail shawl. (You'll need to Google that one if you don't know what it looks like; it's not one of mine.) I haven't decided yet. But the reason I'm leaning toward the lacy/pointy edging is that I want to use the beads I bought....and because I've done ruffles on several projects recently. I do love ruffles, but I also like learning new techniques. ☺ I'll update when I make my decision. And now....back to knitting!