FO: fall cardigan for Kyra

Kyra will be entering Kindergarten on Sept. 1, and I wanted to make her a sweater to augment her wardrobe.  I've been staring at (and going back to often) the adult version of Tea Leaves Cardigan, so I was even more excited to see that there was a child's version of the pattern called (of course) Tiny Tea Leaves Cardi.  I even had the perfect yarn for it that was already in my stash! 

One of my favorite things about having a Finished Object (FO) is the memory associated with where or when I worked on this project. I took this project along with me when we went on our family vacation out to the East Coast.  I completed the yoke and the back of the cardigan when I was either on a plane or riding in car.  I finished the button bands soon after vacation, as I was sitting at the Honda service center where they told me that my AC unit was broken.  The sleeves were finished over the weekend once things slowed down from Dylan's ER visit.

I had Kyra try it on today to see how it fit, and for pictures of course, but she immediately wanted to take it off.  I don't think she truly appreciates how warm this will keep her in the colder days ahead.  I used 100% baby Alpaca yarn, and I think that it is (so far) the softest yarn I have ever knit with.  Unless Kyra gets a huge growth spurt, I'm hoping to get at least 2 winter seasons that she can wear this sweater.

Pattern:  Tiny Tea Leaves Cardi

Needles:  US 6 (4.0 mm) and US 7 (4.5 mm)

Yarn:  Misti Alpaca Worsted

Now that colder weather is clearly on the way, I think that my next knitting adventure will be socks!

Adventures at the ER

Today was supposed to be a lazy Sunday at home.  We got home after church and set out to do afternoon stuff:  cleaning up the kitchen, playing on the playground, playing out in the yard, etc.  Unfortunately my son had a little accident and the afternoon flipped upside down with a trip to the ER.  He had been standing up in a lawn chair, then leaned on the backside of the lawn chair which then tipped over.  Unfortunately his middle finger was pinned between the concrete patio and the lawn chair.  When he came up with the bleeding finger, and that soundless, mouth open cry (mom's you know what that looks like), I knew we were in trouble.  After not being able to connect with 911 (we have an IP phone not a standard land line), we decided it was high time to head to the ER.  Luckily my next door neighbors were home and were kind enough to let us dump our daughter on them. 

After being rushed into a room (yay for "stat" status!), the doctor was able to numb his hand and get an x-ray.  The tip of his middle finger was fractured, and the fingernail was crushed to the point that there was no fingernail anymore.  (Gross I know!)  They cleaned his finger off and simply wrapped it in a bandage.  Apparently small fractures like this don't require splints or casts, and that little children heal bones at a quick rate.

Here's a picture of him at the hospital after the meds kicked in.  They let him rest a little bit, as I'm sure he was exhausted from the pain and the crying.

He's home now and totally milking the big owie.  I'm just going to try to keep on top of his pain meds, because right now he's in a good mood.  However I'm sure that a broken finger is no walk in the park, so pray that things go well in my household for the next couple of days.

Post vacation life resumes

My family took a 2 week vacation to the state of Virginia.  It was hot and humid out east and my kids didn't know what to do with the heat and humidity.  Don't get me started about the traffic in Northern Virginia!  A 3 hour drive stretched to 7 hours thanks to I-95S congestion and the HRBT backups on I-64W.
At least the beach house rental was waiting for us at the end of the 7 hour car ride.   Here is a view from the back patio, since we were right on the bay.

On the same day as check-in we immediately got my family members together that either were there visiting or lived in the area for a photo session.  Krystal from Sweet Pea Studios was our photographer from the day and she took some awesome shots.  Here's a little snippet of my son, daughter, and sister's family:

The main reason we vacationed at a beach house was so that the little cousins could get together and get to know each other.  My sister's boys were 7 and 4, which is still pretty close to my kids' age of 5 and 3.  My sister's family lives and works in England right now, so getting together stateside doesn't happen often. 

The first night at the house, the kids decided they needed to camp out together in the living room.  So they took down the couch cushions and made their own mattress in the middle of the living room.

In the morning we found them sprawled all over each other.  It was so cute

My family and I (minus my husband and the little kids) got to indulge on a feast of blue crabs.  They were yummy!

Spending time with family is always fun, especially now that my siblings and I are scattered around the world.  At least now we have some great photos from Krystal to remember our time spent together.

Ahhh, vacation here I come

I'm getting ready to go on vacation soon.  I'm finding it funny that after a setting aside all of the things I want to take along, that I have more yarn in my pile than I do clothes.  I guess I can whip up a tank top for myself in a pinch.  Ha!
The past two weeks were spent finishing up some test knits I volunteered for on Ravelry.  The first one was a knitted whale toy.  It turned out really cute and the kids enjoy playing with it.  Score one for mom!

Pattern:  Whale Amigurumi Plush Toy

Needle:  US 2.5 (3.0 mm)

Yarn:  Lion Brand's Cotton Ease in Stone

The second one was a really cute top-down dress, that I had to snatch up.  I still don't have a recipient for it yet since I made it in the 12-18 month size.  None of the little sweet peas I know are a year old yet, so I may hang on to it until her birthday.

Pattern:  Girlie Girl

Needle:  US 8

Yarn:  Lion Brand's Cotton Ease in Berry and Azalea

I obviously have several projects lined up while on vacation, and I'm itching to get them started.  However I do need to get my house in order and mountains of laundry to finish before I do that.  I will tell you that my next project was found here.