Jasmine's 3rd Birthday

Today is my precious daughter's 3rd birthday. Reflecting on 3 years ago, I tried to have a home birth. My water had broke on the 10th around 5:30 (right before leaving work). No major contractions that night or most of the next day. Then that night (11th), the mid wife though baby might of been breached so hubby rushed me to the hospital. A record time of 15 minutes when it should of took over 30 minutes. We didn't want to know if it was a boy or a girl, but I had a "feeling" it was a boy. Well, as you know it's a girl. The last things I said before I out from the drugs was asking the doctor if he was sure it was a girl and that I didn't having anything pink! I woke up shortly after 11:30pm and held my beautiful girl in my arms. It's been such a great journey with her so far. I'm looking forward to seeing her grow up. What a great joy she is!

For her 3rd birthday, we decided not to head up north to visit with family. We were there in May. We decided to do a nice family thing, small and intimate. We brought her to Chuck E. Cheese. She had a blast. She loves to run and she had a great time playing the machines and going on the rides. Just the smile on her face really made me happy. For a cake, we got her an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. We've finished the day off with her outside enjoying some pool time. It's been a perfect day for us! :)

My Autumn Hey Teach Sweater and Ravelympics

I finished my Autumn Hey Teach Sweater yesterday. This is a free pattern from Knitty. I downloaded it from Ravelry. When I saw this sweater, I fell in love with it and I had to start on it right away. The bottom half was easy to do. I had a lot of trouble with the top bodice on the back because of the lace and the shaping. It was mostly following the chart and on row 7, I just couldn't get it to work. I realize about 4 days? into the project that I didn't like the yarn color I was using and my s2k was wrong. What to do? I decided to re-start using a different yarn and needle size all together. On August 1st, I re-started my project using a teal colored yarn. I had 7 more days to complete this before Ravelympics! Once again, I was stuck on row 7 of the pattern but I finally got the back bodice done. Thanks to fellow Raveler's, I knew there was an error in the pattern so I reversed the 1st set of stitches with the last set for both the front and left. (Front left said to k 3, follow pattern then k 6 instead I: k 6, follow pattern and knit the last 3). It made the pattern look more like what the designer had done in the photo. Next because there wasn't enough stitches, you were suppose to omit the yarn over. It wasn't coming out right. What I did was still follow the pattern and for the last 2 stitches, I slip 2 and knitted them together. This way, the pattern flowed and looked like what it was suppose to! I was happy to say that the right side was a piece of cake!

I wanted to make this sweater slightly different, with a little bit of me in it. I decided to rib the sleeves and do the trim in black. I wasn't sure how it would look. After knitting the trim in black, I decided the neck line needed more black, so I did 3 rows of (single crochet) sc. I also did 3 rows of sc on both sleeves and 1 row of sc on the bottom. Then it's sewing on the buttons and weaving in all my ends. Boy was there a lot of ends to weave in! I have to add that this was one of the best seaming job I've done! :)

Ravelympics started at 8am on Friday. I was suppose to start my vest for the vest vault. I am making the modular vest. It's cool looking, knitted in miters. I SHOULD of been working on my vest on Friday, but I spent all of my time on Friday trying to finish the hey teach sweater! I did finally start my vest on Saturday. I haven't devoted too much time to it yet, but I'm confident I'll have this done in time!

Anyways, here are a few more photos of my Autumn Hey Teach sweater. I'm very proud of it!

My Camp Perry ~ Leaf Tee

I'm naming this tee after my trip to Camp Perry, Ohio. This tee was started on the day we left for the trip. This is another free pattern from Ravelry called the Leaf Tee. I LOVE this pattern.

It is so easy to follow. Only 1 lace repeat and the rest is simple stockinette stitches. This was done on a size 6 needle using a DK weight yarn. I used 5 skeins of Elann Sinota.

I pretty much followed the pattern. It was the right size for me. I finished with 3 rows of ribbing as suggested to keep the bottom from curling. I also added 1 row of sc around the neckline using a size D hook.

I really love how this top turned out. It's a great fit and I love the lace on it. The pattern was so simple to follow, I didn't need any help with trying to decifer the directions! Now I can concentrate on my current project which is the Hey, Teach cardigan (bella is on hold again). I hope to get it completed before the ravelympic which starts on August 7th. So my goal will be to finish the cardigan by then. I'm really looking forward to the ravelympics. I have a new friend which I will be making the modular vest with. It's so exciting!

Knitted Minisweater

This project had been put on hold while I started and finished my talia vest. The minisweater/boobholder is a free pattern by Stephanie Japel. I downloaded this pattern from Ravelry.

I liked some of the modifications made by other Ravelers. I followed mainly the pattern and basically extended the length and joined in the rounds. It was a very easy pattern. I used exactly 6 skeins of Berroco Softwist using a size 9 knitting needle. This yarn was very soft but kind of "splity". I would not recommend using this yarn for any project using any needle smaller than 9. If I was to make this again, I would add some waist increases. It's a bit snug even with the yarn over bind off.

Overall, it's a fun and easy project to do. I'm pretty happy with the results! Now I'm on the hunt for my next project. I may do a skirt as a future project...

Talia Vest

I'm happy to say my knitted talia vest is complete. I took part in a KAL with the Sweaterbabe Group on Ravery. I had originally bought 3 skeins of Lamb's Pride, Brown Sheep for this vest. The color was called brown bear but I didn't really like the shade of brown. I ended up using 3 skeins of Lion Brand Wool in Winter White from my stash. I bought an extra skein just in case but it took exactly 3 skeins to make the size small. This was done all with a size 9 needle.

I have to say that this is the most difficult knitting project I've done so far. There was a lot of lace and I really, really had to pay close attention to the directions. This project was the most difficult knit project for me. I had to pay really close attention. I had trouble with some of the directions, my wrong side/right side wasn't matching up so it kind of confused me. (Thanks to some fellow ravelers they helped me to get back on the right track). The neck shaping also gave me some problems so I finally decided to leave the pattern out all together but I think it turned out fine. Once I decided to do that, the project went much smoother for me and I was actually enjoying this, without stress! I might add that for the sleeve bind off, I used the yarn over bind off to get a loose fit. It was too tight otherwise. This was also the first time also I picked up stitches (around the sleeves and neck). It didn't turned out to be too difficult. I ended up blocking this vest twice to ensure a good fit.

Overall, I'm happy with this vest. I'm excited that I was able to complete this project. I will probably knit another talia vest in the near future! :)

Here's another photo with me wearing a dark shirt to show the finer details of this vest:

My Favorite FO

This has got to be my favorite project by far. I finished the Coquette tub top from the book Fitted Knits. I used 3 skeins of TLC cotton~plus w/ knitting needles in sizes 5 and 7. I took my time on knitting this because I wanted the stitches to all be even. I was a bit nervous about the fit after reading other knitter's comments. I made this in the xs and hoped that it would not be too big! I used the sewing bind off for this top to get a very loose edging on the bottom. I'm very excited to say it's a good fit. It's still missing some ribbons or an icord for the top but that'll come later. I could not contain my excitement, so here's a photo of top!

And here's a close~up of the lace:

I have so many projects that I want to do. Wouldn't you know it, after posting my photo on Ravelry, I stumbled upon another top that I just love. It's called the Celia Cruz strapless top. It's similar to this top I just made. I had to order it immediately! It's downloaded and now I just have find the perfect yarn to start on that project! I hope to be done with that before the first of July so I can start my KAL on the talia top!

Monte Rio Shell

I finished this crochet shell yesterday. It's from the current issue of Crochet! Magazine. It's a very easy crochet. I rarely check gauge, so of course the gauge was off. I used 3 skeins of Omega Sinfonia cotton yarn in pistachio using a size I hook. I worked on this project along with a knit project, the Coquette Tub Top (Fitted Knits). It was nice switching back and forth, when I got bored with one ~ I switched to the other. I realized at the end, I was getting antsy so I made myself finish this shell. The Tub Top is coming along nicely, the only problem is that I'm running out of yarn. I'm hoping the yarn will be here by Saturday! If not, I'll have to "force" myself to start another knit project. I have too many projects in mind!