A wonderful designer and owner of a precious dog

If you haven't guessed, I'm talking about Pamela Wynne.

In knitting world, she's famous for The February Lady Sweater, her adaption of Elizabeth Zimmermann's famous baby knit.

Unknown to some, Pamela's also has quite a few other original designs available as either free downloads or as paid downloads on Ravelry. My favorite is Pickadilly.

Anyway, Pam's sweet baby girl Crush recently broke her leg. Badly. She had to have major surgery. Surgery that is very expensive.

To help raise money for Crush's surgery, Pam created this adorable sweater. You have to click on that link and check it out. It is ADORABLE. Almost as adorable as Crush.

Pam is always looking out for others. She gave us The February Lady Sweater for FREE. That's a huge gift. But Pam does more. Profits from her dog sweater Wurstwärmer go to the Michigan Animal Rescue League. She gave portions of her profit from Pickadilly and Elinor's Mittens to Partners in Health and Doctors Without Borders.

Now it's time to help Pam (and get awesome knit patterns too). Go to Pam's website or to Ravelry and check out her awesome patterns. Buy one. It's that simple. Enjoy!

They grow up so quickly...

Shaving.

A Study of Opposites

My two current projects.


Knitting a lace scarf with lace weight yarn, size 3 needles, nupps and charts to follow. Crocheting a simple potholder with worsted weight cotton, size G hook and no pattern necessary.

Got to love them both!

More Photos of Fun

Right after we got back from Virginia, we had family from Oregon come to visit. We had so much fun with B's sister Kristin, her husband Chris and their adorable children Oscar (almost 3) and Isla (11 months). We mostly hung out at home and the park, but we did make one trip into Dallas to go to the aquarium and Dealey plaza. Here are some of my favorite pics from the visit. It was SO much fun!Sweet Isla. Isn't she SO adorable? She's been walking for about 2 weeks and is really fast already.


Even Pepper got some extra love.



At the aquarium. All four really got into it and had a ton of fun.


Isla loved pushing her hands (and face) right up to the glass to watch the animals.


J enjoyed Isla as much as the animals :).


Oscar, Kristin, N and B


Being silly.


On our last visit, J did NOT like the shark and ray tunnel at all. This time he LOVED it!

Family portrait.


Getting tired.


Giving kisses by the flamingos.


Smiling Oscar at Dealey Plaza.


Isla loved to push the boys on this fire truck.

I finally did it...

Thanks to my mom, I finally learned how to crochet.

I've been knitting for over 5 years and I love it. In general, I had no desire to crochet. Except when I saw crocheted potholders...then I had the urge to crochet. It all stems back to my great grandmother Ruthie. She crocheted potholders and they are the best potholders I have ever used. They are simple, nothing fancy potholders but they really work. I have two that I inherited from my grandmother about 10 years ago and they are abused, but I've never found anything that works as well. Potholders crocheted by Grandmother Ruthie

Anyway, my mom decided she wanted to make some potholders like the ones Grandmother Ruthie made. We tried to teach ourselves, but my results were less than stellar. For her birthday, my brother and I gave my mom a gift certificate to her local yarn shop (or shoppee) so she could learn to crochet. While I was in Virginia, my mom taught me. And I now have three potholders to prove it!


The blue one is my first and it is definitely not perfect; I'm keeping it for myself. The two green ones are "a set" I made for my sister-in-law. They aren't perfect either, but they are better.
Pattern: Pumpkin Pie Potholder by Cylinda Mathews (modified)
Yarn: Patons Grace (1.75 oz/ 50g/ 100% mercerized cotton) With the striping, I think I can get at least 3 (maybe 4 or 5) potholders using one skein each of two different colors.
Hook: Size E
Modifications: Did rounds 1-4 as written with Color A. For Round 5, I changed to Color B. For Round 5, I repeated the directions for Round 4 (1 dc, 1dc, 2dc). For Round 6 (also in Color B), I did 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 2 dc. For Round 7, I switched back to Color A and did 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 2 dc. I made two circles (one with a 14 chain hanging loop) and then crocheted the two together with wrong sides facing.

Finished: Slanting Gretel Tee for Cat

Some time after I finished my Slanting Gretel Tee, my twin sister Cat requested one for her birthday. Although she's a knitter now, she wasn't feeling quite up to the task of knitting one for herself. She picked out a color and after I finished my Ripple Cardigan, I cast on. Finishing this top was delayed by the birth of a good friend's daughter, but I still managed to finish it before I left Virginia. I even got a chance to take a photo or two of my sister modeling it before I returned to Texas.


Pattern: Slanting Gretel Tee by Petra Manis
Size: Smallest with some modifications
Yarn: 6 skeins of Ella Rae Baby Cotton (50g/ 100m/ 88% Cotton/ 12% Nylon) in Color 04 Aloha
Needles: Size 5 Circular and Doublepoints
Modifications: My sister has a tall upper body so I added an extra 2 1/4 inches (16.25 inches instead of 14 inches) to the length before beginning the sleeves. My sister was also concerned about a tight fit in the armpit so I picked up extra stitches to either side of the stitches put on hold for the armpits. I also increased in these stitches when binding off.

Photos from Virginia

Finally getting around to putting some more photos from our Virginia trip. I took a ton of photos, but here are some favorites.

All packed into Cat's car

Michael and Lizzie (my sister's children) with N and J

J, Madeline, Mary, Reed (my brother's triplets) and N

J being silly with my brother

My sweet nephew Michael collecting "flowers" for us

Lizzie and J

I can not say enough how much fun this trip was. J and N had SO much fun with their cousins and I just loved spending so much time with my family. While I was there, my mom taught me how to crochet potholders (she just learned a month ago)! I'll share my first few potholders soon.

A Little Piece of Heaven

The boys and I got back on Monday from a six day trip to Virginia to hang out with my family. We had lots of quality time with my parents, my sister and her husband, my brother and his wife, and my six Virginia nephews and nieces. It was wonderful! The flights down and back were long and tiring, but wonderfully kind people who played peekaboo with the boys and gave them high fives really helped. Thank you, kind strangers! I took tons of pictures and will share them soon, but for tonight I will just share this one. A picture of a little piece of heaven:


Yes, that's my twin sister and I knitting together! She just started knitting and is amazing and I love sharing knitting with her. One day N was napping and J and my sister's children were enjoying some bike time together and my sister and I got to sit and knit together. It was lovely!

More trip pics to come soon.

Music to My Ears

This morning I got serenaded all the way to school. I only wish I could have recorded it because J and N sang me the most adorable rendition of "Down By the Bay" that I have ever heard. It went something like this:

J: Down by the bay
N: Bay
J: Where the watermelons grow
N: Grow
J: Back to my home
N: Home
J: I dare not go.
N: Go
J: For if I do
N: Do
J: My mother will say
N: Say
J: Did you ever see a moose kissing a lion--roar--down by the bay.

There were a ton of silly verses and I loved them all. J got very creative and N did a great job harmonizing. ADORABLE!!!!!!

Wish you were there.

Owl Eyes

Finally got the buttons for my Owls sweater.


Now I just have to sew them on...all 34 of them.
Hmmm... Considering that it is now 80 outside, I imagine I will put the button sewing off for a while. Hopefully I'll get it done before Fall.

Knitted Goodies

My good friends just had a new baby girl and I am so happy for them. I just had to knit some little girly things for her. So I made this little hat.


The pattern is from Itty-Bitty Hats and I've always wanted to make one, but never thought about it when I had a little girl in my life that was the right size to wear one.

The pattern was a little bit of a pain in that the petals are knit separately and then sewn on. I'm not a big fan of finishing. Otherwise, a great knit--and it turned out really adorable!

Pattern: Upside-Down Daisy Hat from Itty-Bitty Hats by Susan B. Anderson (available free here)
Size: Smallest
Yarn: Blue = Caron Simply Soft, White = Caron Simply Soft, Green = Softee Baby
Needles: Size 7
Modifications: None

I decided I also wanted to make a sweater. Even though it is now in the 80s in Texas, this baby lives in Northern Ohio where it is much cooler. I found this pattern on Ravelry and decided to adapt it for a nice little baby girl sweater. I really like the way it turned out. I haven't knit for a newborn in a while so I hope the size worked out okay.


Pattern: Green Zebra Baby Sweater by Dove Knits
Size: Smallest (3 months)
Yarn: White = Caron Simply Soft (Worsted), Green = Softee Baby (Sport, doubled), Pink Marl = Softee Baby (Sport, doubled)
Needles: Size 7
Modifications: The original pattern is a striped sweater using intarsia for the button band. I did a solid sweater and added the flower bud pattern in the yoke.


The flower bud pattern is from p.91 of Style Your Own Kids' Knits by Kate Buller. The sweater pattern said to work six rows even between yoke decreases, but I only worked five so the decreases would stay on the right side. I had to go down a needle size to get gauge. The instructions say to do button holes every 12 rows. I did the last one (the seventh) after 14 rows to make it closer to the top of the sweater. If I did this again, I might space out the buttons more so there were only six. Overall, the pattern is a nice simple worsted weight cardigan knit from the bottom up with a yoke. There was very little finishing which was nice!

So, yes, I do still knit :). I also working away on my sister's Slanting Gretel Tee. I didn't finish it for our birthday, but hope to finish it before I head to Virginia next week. Wish me luck!

Love It!

Yesterday, this little goodie arrived in the mail. It's a present from my dear friend Nicole.


Inside that adorable packaging, was this adorable necklace. Love it!
It came from this shop on etsy. I LOVE etsy! Thanks, Nicole!

Love Them!

Just found these 3/4" buttons at JoAnn's. I LOVE them. I bought six of them. Now I have to find a pattern so I can use them. Any suggestions for a good knitting pattern for a sweater that would showcase these buttons?

Nothing Better Than A...

sleeping baby. He looks so sweet and so angelic. Just want to squeeze him.

A whole crafted crew

After I finished my Ravelympics/Knitting Olympics sweater, I took a little knitting break and made these. I have a good friend who had her third baby a few months ago and I still hadn't finished the gifts for the baby, her older brother and older sister. So here they are:

The gift for the new baby girl is adapted from a pattern in a book called Fleecie Dolls.

The gift for her older brother (2 years old) is a pattern of my own creation, a little boy doll with a pocket for little treasures.
The gift for her older sister (almost 4 years old) is a Black Apple doll. I love Black Apple prints and found this pattern on MarthaStewart.com I've been wanting to make one for a while. I added the bead necklace to make her a little more girly.

The whole crafted crew: