There is something magical about a twirly skirt on a little girl! Although this one is a bit too twirly ... when she really gets going it shows off her underwear. Luckily she loves the "tights under a skirt" look so I don't have to worry about little boys ... too much.

Here is what it looks like sitting stillI also got a picture of the third skirt I made. I think this is my favorite of all the ones I made her. She should be set now. At least for a little while.


And not to be left out ..

Darn! I forgot to post anything Friday. And then I forgot to publish this yesterday. Darn! Darn! Darn! I was so close too. Only one week more and I would have made it. Oh well, it did make me want to write in my blog again ... which is the real reason I took up the challenge.

I was busy though. I'm in the process of turning all of those leftover tie ends into headbands. It is really really easy to do since half the work has already been done.

Here are the steps I did:

1. Snip off the small point on the remaining end.

2. Cut off the other end just before it starts to flair out again. Cut the longer piece in half. You should now have 3 pieces:


3. Se aside the flared piece. I'm not sure how I'll be using that. Look at the remaining 2 pieces, one should have a seam or 2 in it. Remove the interfacing from this piece and sew into a tube. Turn right side out.

4. Thread some elastic through the tube. 1/2 - 3/4 works best but I used 1/4 on a couple of them and they worked just fine.

5. (This is the easy to do, but tricky to explain part) Push the Tube down so that you have an elastic tail poking out. Stuff this tail into interfaced portion and sew into place. It should look like this


Now, tuck in the cut ends of the tube and slide it up over the unfinished ends of the interfaced section. Sew into place.

6. Wrap the Headband around your head and mark the elastic for a good fit. Cut it a little long (1/4 inch is good). Repeat step 5, making sure the cut end of the interfaced tube lines up with your mark on the elastic.

Your done!

What in the world do you you do with all those ugly ties?

Well, you could make a skirt out of them, but I for one wouldn't want one. I imagine it would be way to hard to clean.

So what did I do? I made a purse!





The kind folks on freecycle helped out (a lot). But you know, even the butt-ugly ones look great on the purse!

I actually finished 3 skirts for Princess this weekend. But in typical lazy mode ... I didn't take pictures of them. But, that may be a good thing because now I have fodder for my Blog! I'm almost there, at the end of the challenge.

So without further ado, here is skirt #1.



Princess is sporting the latest in tween style. I didn't think that the shirt and skirt went all that well together ... but I'm just a mom, what do I know

Did you notice the matching headband? I'm quite proud of those and they took hardly any effort to make. I guess this is the part where I thank my mom for giving me the idea. Apparently as a "child of the sixties" she made a lot of these with ribbon and elastic. I made the green one with that idea ... substituting a fabric tube for the ribbon.


It came out nice but was missing something. So I looked online and figured out what it was ... and got this fantastic tutorial to show me exactly how to do it.

I cheated slightly and used the serger. Turning a tube is so much easier with on of those. Just serge a long chain. Wrap the fabric around it and serge the seam. Pull on the chain, and viola!

Quick ... go read this

You done?

So how many of y'all could use a little Raul in your life? I know I can! DH and I used to have a running joke that started in college. It involved the guy hiding in the closet.

He was a great catch-all for those questions boyfriends seem to come up with. You know the ones ... "What took you so long?" "I was doing the guy in the closet"
... "Why are you so tired?" "Talk the he guy in the closet"

Somehow, the guy in the closet disappeared once the kiddos came into the picture. I think he needs to come back, gain a name, and start giving me gifts!

Happy tenth birthday Princess! May all your days fill you with as much wonder as the smoke from your birthday candles!

I got started on the Christmas presents today. Princess helped and we made this


Cute, isn't it? Easy too ... good thing with the late start I've got on them. I used the directions here with one change. To give them a little extra thickness/protection I used a peice of felt instead on the fusible web.

Princess had a grand time making them. She cut out all the squares and layered them. I did the pressing. I may let her sew up the next one. They are fun and come out quickly ... almost like magic.

I soent the afternoon watching my MIL sing with the Greater Richmond Chorus They put on a great, but really long show. It started at 2:30 and we didn't get out until 6:00. That was just about at the girls limit, but the made it. I was so proud of them. Here are a couple of the better pictures that were taken. Belle was the one who had my camera. Princess had her own ... which was my hubbies old one. By old, I mean ancient in digital camera terms. I can't get the pictures off of the camera ... it writes it to a 3.5 inch floppy!

Here they are during the opening song.



and here is one lovely picture of your's truly. Not too bad for six.

I love my mom, I really do. So why do I want to shoot her sometimes?

She is visiting here for Princess's birthday and arrived today. I saw her all of 1/2 hour before I had to just leave. I don't expect much ... but .... there are certain things she does that drive me insane.

What was it today? Well, remember I told you that we were trying to sell our house? One of the things we took apart and put away was the extra bed. No big deal, mom has several air mattresses that she can bring down with her to sleep on. I remember specifically telling here to bring the Twin, although I admit that I didn't tell her why. Well, she ended up bring the double ... along with extra bedding because she assumed that was why I wanted her to bring the twin. Besides ... "the double is more comfortable"

I'm all for comfort, but that doesn't change the size of the room. Quite frankly, there is only room to comfortably fit an extra twin in there. The double can squeeze in, but the room is now crammed. This is where we get back to the selling the house part .... If ( a big IF this close to T-day) we get someone who wants to look at the house ... we are now going to need to deflate the mattress, find somewhere to stash it, and move all of the furniture back to where it was. An hour or so later we will get to repeat the process in reverse Oh joy!

Or at least it is starting to get that way. Until I challenged myself like this, I didn't realize how much working was taking out of me. Wow.

I did get another skirt almost finished, This one is for princess instead of me. I love the fabric but didn't buy enough of it to make anything. IE I didn't notice that the border print was only along one side. It is making a beautiful skirt for the girl though.
There wasn't enough border for her skirt either. But there was enough width to the fabric so I was able to cut the back from the top part.

I should have it done in time for her birthday. Yep, she's turning the big 1-0 on Sunday. Double-digits. Is it wrong that I feel old now? Alright, alright ... I felt old before too ... but now I feel older.

Teaches me for leaving my boots where Belle can get to them Yes, I got the whole diva show, although I don't know what she was trying to sing.

I had to laugh since this was one of my favorite things to do as a kid too! Gramma always had some of the gaudist stuff for her grandkids to play with. We had a blast!

Dang, almost didn't make it there.

Looked at some houses today. Saw one we liked ... and below our price range! Yeah!!

Got my skirt done, and will be wearing to work tommorow. I'm making a few for Princess too, since she's out grown a lot of her clothes. Belle will just have to make do with the gazillion and one hand me downs she got from her sister & cosins.

That's all folks ... bake to bed for me.

you know, I really shouldn't try and write something that late at night again. Sorry for all the spelling errors and sentance fragments. Oh and also for not hitting the stupid post button until just now.

You come to a four-way intersection. You have a stop sign as well as the car directly across from you. The other 2 directions do not.

You want to make a right turn and the person across from you wants to turn left. Who has the right of way?

I you said the person turning left ... then you must be driving in Richmond today! I almost hit 1, narrowly avoided another, and saw a lot of others pulling this harebrained stunt!

When not nearly colliding with stupid drivers, I worked on my skirts. If I was a little more wide awake, I would show y'all a picture. As it is, I'm exhausted

I promise I'll do better tomorrow.

I must be too much of a pushover. Dh gave me those puppy dog eyes and poor Dora was shivering. Sooooo ... I've been roped into knitting a sweater for a cat. Think I can get her to actually wear it?

Anyway, I found this site that will generate a custom dog sweater. I inputed Dora's measurements and voila! a sweater pattern.

I am applying an ease of 5% and multiplying the chest, thigh and belly width by 1.05 to determine the widths of the main pieces. The following values are modified:

chest 18 -> 18.9 inches;
thigh 3 -> 3.15 inches;
I'm finished calculating. Here are the directions. They are custom created for your dog, dora.

General Directions & Design Ideas

The Pieces

The dog sweater is made in 6 parts. To see a general schematic and some sweater design ideas click "schematics".

TOP: The 8 sided "top" piece is the main piece. The cast on is narrow. As you knit, you will increase stitches, knit without increaseing, and then decreases towards the neck. After assembly, the cast on portion of the top will end up by the dogs rump. The cast off portion will be near the dog's neck. The total length of this piece is -0.9 inches; the total width is 12.6 inches.

BOTTOM: The "bottom" is the underside of sweater. It will cover the dog's belly. This piece is a rectangle, and it is shorter than is the top. The two side edges of the bottom "bottom" will be sewn to the "top" matching points "a"-"d" but leaving the portion between "b" and "c" unsewn to form slits. The total length of the bottom is 8 inches; the total width is 6.3 inches.

COLLAR: The collar will be a turtleneck. The directions suggest you knit it separately, and then sew it to the body. However, you can can also pick up stitches from the neck edge and knit until the collar is long enough.

LEGS: These are two little rectangles which are knit and the folded in half, matching points "c" on the two sides. These legs should be sewn to leg slits matching points "b" and "c". One of the main purposes of the legs is to keep the edges of the body from curling at the leg openings. If you knit the body in a stitch that doesn't curl, you may omit the legs. Or, if you know how to crochet, you can crochet around the edges.

WELT: The welt is a long narrow strip of ribbing that is applied to hip edge of the sweater. It is decorative, but also prevents the body from curling. It is best to knit this in a non-curling stitch like ribbing or garterstitch. Th welt be knitted separately and sewn to the body, or you can pick up stitches from the body. The total length of this piece is 1 inches.

You pick your main pattern. This could be fairisle, stockinette, DJ or nearly anything you like. But for your dog's comfort, select a stretchy stitch. For a good fit, the collar and legs should be knitted in a stitch that draws in like ribbing.

---

Construction and Assembly Order

Knit top and bottom. Mattress stitch top to bottom on one side matching points "a-d", but leaving slits between "b" and "c".

Knit collar. Attach to the front using your preferred method.

Knit welt. Attach to rump portion of sweater.

Mattress stitch top to bottom at the remaining side, once again leaving the slit.

Knit the legs. Cast off. Fold over matching the sides and sew sides to form a tube.

Sew the cast off edge of the legs to the slit openings.

Find your dog; dress him and take him for a walk.

---

Note: The directions specify both rows and the length of the piece whenever you need to shape or cast off. Handknitters generally use length information. Machine knitters prefer the row information. Don't worry about the extra information.

Top

Cast on 28 stitches and begin to knit using the main stitch pattern. (width is 6.3 inches) When cast on is complete: if you are hand knitting, knit 1 or 2 rows, ending with knit sidefacing, if you are knitting with a japanese machine, make 2 carriage passes ending with carriage on the right (COR), if you are knitting with a Passap, the cast on took a few passes, so you are ready to shape.

Now, begin shaping: increase at both sides as follows:
increase 16 stitches every two rows 0 times then increase 15 stitches every two rows 1 times
There are now 58 stitches and the width is 12.6 inches. The row count is -34. (Length is -8.9 inches). Set a row marker; I will call this marker "d". Knit without increasing to row -24. (Length is -6.4 inches). Set a marker; I will call this marker point "c". This is where the leg slit starts. Knit to row -16. (Length is -4.4 inches.) Set another marker; I will call this marker "b". (The slit opening for the dogs legs will be between markers "b" and "c".) The chest shaping also starts here. Decrease 11 stitches over 12 rows on both outside edges as follows:
decrease 1 stitches every two rows 1 times then decrease 2 stitches every two rows 5 times
Knit the remaining 36 stitches without shaping to row -2. (Length is -0.9 inches) Cast off the all stitches. This row could be marked "a".

Bottom

Cast on 30 stitches and begin to knit using the main pattern. (width is 6.3 inches) Knit to row 10. Set a marker c. (This will be the one end of the slit for the dog legs.) Knit to row 18. Set another marker b. (The slit opening for the dogs legs will be between markers "b" and "c".) Knit straight to row count 32. (Length is 8 inches) Cast off all stitches. Hang a marker to indicate this row is point "a".

Collar

Method 1: Cast on 86 stitches and begin to knit in the welt pattern-- which should be some sort of ribbing. Knit in rib until row count 4 (Length is 1 in inches.) Bind off and sew turtleneck to sweater body. Method 2: This is useful for handknitters. Attach top to bottom at one shoulder. Pick up 86 stitches around neckline. Knit until row count 4 (Length is 1 in inches.) Cast off.

Legs

Knit two.

Cast on 12 stitches and knit using the welt stitch pattern. This should be some sort of ribbing. The width is twice the leg slit opening. Knit in rib until row count 8. (Length is 2 inches.) Cast off. Fold in half matching sides "c".

Welt

Make one.

Cast on (or pick up on rump end of sweater) 142 stitches in the welt stitch pattern. This should be some sort of ribbing. (This will be attached to the rump of the sweater which is 31.7 inches long.) Knit to row count 4. (length is 1 inches.) Bind off and sew to rump edge of dog sweater.

Now all I have to do is knit it up.

The last thing I knitted was Princess's hat and that all the way back to last weekend! I wasn't kidding about having no knitting time left, I just can't seem to manage it on the days I work. Although I have big plans. I love the Jun0 Regina from the Knitty bonuses. I just need to find an alternative to the Lorna Laces Yarn. Much as I love the feel of it, I just can't afford the hefty price tag that goes along with it. Hmmm ... maybe something over at Knitpicks? Any of y'all have suggestions for substitute yarns. Maybe some of that new SoySilk yarn?

On another note, I need to make myself some new skirts. I have several tops and several skirts ... but they don't seem to match. Bad planning on my part I guess. I'm thinking of getting this pattern


and here is some of my fabric from my stash

This should work ... right?

Sung to this tune

Where oh where has my knitting time gone?
Oh where oh where can it be?
With my days cut short since I work too long, I find it's nowhere to be!

Bossy will now be called Belle (as is Beauty and the Beast)

We had a long talk today, more her than me. She convinced me since she is now a "young lady" at the ripe old age of 6. She also told me that I need to shed the well deserved nickname she earned here on the web. Most of her suggestions were entirely wrong (The Quiet One was one she especially liked ) We finally agreed on Belle.

Thank you for your patience in this changeover!

The hat is done!

I even got a "Thank you mom! I love it!"

I used the basic hat pattern with one little change. To get the tail, I did the decrease rows on every 8th row ... instead of every other row. I also added a few more "filler" rows when I got toward the end since it didn't look quite long enough. and of course the big pom-pom on the end was Princess's idea.

Yep, we are moving. Or at least we are trying to move. First we have to sell our home, a feat that is easier said than done I'm afraid. We had a new home picked out, but someone came and snatched it out from under us. So it's back to the drawing boards.

And yes, this comes shortly after I went back to work full-time. You may be wondering why. Well it can be summed up into one person ... DH. I've been wanting to move for years, but DH has been dead set against it. Funny how his thinking changed once he had to stay home with the girls. Don't get me wrong, this is a great house! A great house for 3 people, not 4. That extra person, and all the paraphernalia with her, is just too much clutter for this little place.

But enough of that. You want to know about my projects. I started Princess's hat and sent it immediately tot he frog pond. The 15 needles created a fabric that was much too loosey-goosey. Back to the drawing board.

I'm doing well so far. But then it only the 3rd day.

Thank you Anne Margaret for the hat pattern. Now I got a base to start from. I'm thinking of adapting the pattern slightly so that it forms a stacking cap with the really long tail. You know what I'm taking about? One of these but knitted instead of sewn.

I'm way to tired tonight to start it though. DH was gone all day at orentation for his new part-time job so I got stuck with the girls. Not only that, but the house was is a disaster. Our realtor isn't too happy with me. He called around 3:30 saying that someone wanted to look at the house at 4:00. I told him there was absolutely no way the house could be in showing shape in just 1/2 hour. Oh well, hopefully the people that wanted to look are willing to reschedule.

On a side note ... who only give 1/2 hour notice for looking at a house???? When we go looking, we have to plan days in advance. It's hard to get everyone's schedule to to mesh together.

I'm on a mission. I need to turn this
into a hat for Princess.

Thank goodness I found those circular needles! I thought all of them were put in the infamous "safe place" You know that place? It's so safe that you never see it again ... or at least until you either

1. Don't need it anymore or
2. buy a replacement

Yeah, that is the place so much of my stuff is. Word to the Wise ... Don't ever let your hubby pack away your stuff "temporarily"! Everything if mine was packed up in unlabeled boxes as preparation to sell our home. You want to guess how many of his tools got the same treatment?

But I digress. Any hints on where to look for a pattern? The yarn is Homespun. The circular needles are 15 and the straights are 10.5. Help!

I'm going to try. I probably won't succeed, but I'm trying anyway. What am I talking about? Well the NaBloPoMo challenge. I'm going to try and make a post every day this month.

Why am I doing this? Welll ... I really, truly enjoyed blogging when I actually did it. Unfortunely, it's ben a wild and crazy year. I haven't even been able to go see my knitting buds reguarly. Maybe this challenge will get me out of this funk, and back to my regular self. At least I can hope it will!

Anyone going to join me? Anyone still left reaing my blog? Bueller? Bueller?