My Angel is ten!

Today is Angel's birthday!  Of course, we've already celebrated, but still, it's good to mark the day.  She's going to make muffins for lunch.  Would have made them for breakfast, but someone forgot to tell anyone that she'd used up the eggs the other day.  So we need to run to the store this morning and get some eggs.  She's already opened all her presents, which included an angel figurine from Kitty, a porcelain doll from Princess, two books from Mommy(Indiana Jones trilogy and Star Wars trilogy, two of her favorites), a printer from Daddy, and a computer from Grandpa.  She's already more than 2/3 done with the Indiana Jones book.

So happy birthday to my Angel!

Angel's at camp!

I dropped Angel off at church this morning, so she could go to camp.

She's been very excited about it for months, but she looked a little apprehensive when it was actually time to go get in the bus.  Her counselor posted on Facebook a little while ago, saying they made it to the camp, so now I can relax.  I hope she has a wonderful time, and doesn't miss us too much.  She's never been away from family for this much time before.  She and Princess spent a week with friends back when Kitty was born, but the two of them were together.  This time, she's alone.  She's a little shy, but at least she kind of knows some of the other kids from Sunday School. ☺

♥

I've finished the "A Girl's Best Friend" Scarf, and made a pair of mitts to match, since I had plenty of yarn leftover.  I'll post pics of that tomorrow; the mitts are still blocking right now.

Angel's birthday

Yesterday was Angel's birthday.  She's nine years old now.  I can hardly believe it.  They grow so quickly....

It was a fun day.  She went to breakfast with Daddy, and he gave her a pair of beautiful Black Hills Gold earrings.  Then we all went to Chuck E Cheese's for lunch, and had a lot of fun.  I gave Angel the shawl I made while we were on vacation, and a little wooden box for her knitting tools, and a bunch of stitch markers and such to keep in it.  Princess gave her a t-shirt from Mount Rushmore, and Kitty gave her a really pretty necklace from the thrift shop.  Angel helped make the cupcakes, and iced them herself.  So all in all, it was a good birthday.

I did a bunch of yardwork yesterday afternoon, and my muscles are still protesting today.  Now that we know we're not moving to Florida, we're going to fix up our yard and make it nicer.  We're going to trim trees, and sod the front yard, and mulch the shady area in the backyard, and create a stepping-stone path in the side yard, and plant shade-loving perennials in the stupid planting beds that are too close to the house to get enough sun for most plants, and build a little storage shed for the rakes and shovels and such.  And when I say "we" I mean mostly "I".  Which is just fine with me.  I like building stuff.  Other yardwork, not so much, but it's worth the effort, now that the weather is cool enough to do it.  The forcasted high for today is less than 80 degrees.  I love it.  It's sunny, but breezy and cool.  Fall is here!

Angel in the Bluebonnets

Sweet

Happy
Smells good

Pretty

Goin' for a stroll

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.

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

Whew! One more done!

I finished Angel's sweater! No pics yet; it's blocking at this moment, and the camera is missing. Will find it later and get a picture. I'm going to frog the purse I started for Princess; it's just going too slowly. I think I'm going to double the yarn and knit with bigger needles, or maybe crochet. I haven't crocheted much lately, but I do remember it being fairly quick, so that might be the way to go.

We're going to see Santa tonight at our neighborhood park. The girls are very excited. Two great photo ops in one day! We went and got portraits done this morning, and we were amazed at how well they turned out. Four shots yielded three good pictures and one that was just okay. We were done after about twenty minutes, so we went to IHOP for lunch, and finished up Christmas shopping. ☺ Here's a picture of the girls, wearing the cardigans I designed for them earlier this year...

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.

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. ☺

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! ☺

Ladies and Gentlemen...

May I present: my seven-year-old daughter, Angel, and her first yarn. With a little help from Mommy, she spun this yarn herself, on her own drop spindle. It's a wool single, and varies in thickness between worsted and super bulky. Obviously, she's very proud of herself. Not quite as proud as I am, though.

To anyone who thinks spinning is difficult...may I just say: if a seven-year-old can do it, so can you.

"Summerlin" dresses

Here are my girls in some sundresses I made for them. The top of each is recycled cotton, and the skirts of the younger two are from fabric I had in my stash. I had to buy some to go with the fuschia yarn for my oldest.

"Angel" - age 7 1/2

"Princess" - Age 4

"Dolly" - age almost 2

These dresses were so easy to make, and my girls love them. I'm sure they'll wear them many times this summer; I should probably make a few more. I actually knitted the top parts upside down from how the pattern was written. But that's because it made more sense to me that way. In the pattern, you are supposed to start at the ends of the straps and knit to where the v-neck comes together, then join the two pieces and continue. Instead, I started with the waistband, and knit both sides of the front and both straps concurrently, with two balls of yarn. I like how they turned out. Cool enough for summer, without looking tarty. But don't get me started on current fashions for little girls...