May 29, 2011

Happy Sunday!

     “There are two great days in a person's life -- the day we are born and the day we discover why.” - William Barclay

May 27, 2011

Sewing Project....or not.

Have you seen these cute camera strap covers? I think these are adorable, and probably more comfortable than my plain ol' Canon strap.

It looks pretty easy, right? I think I might try it. I did, after all, put "sew something and have fun" on my 35 before 35 list (even though I'm late on that).

Or I could just knit one.

May 26, 2011

Sprinkles

I was searching through old photos - ok, not that old, but photos from last year, and came across these from our trip to Sprinkles Cupcakes, which was on my 35 before 35 list.

We were on our way to Palm Desert for vacation, and I decided it was the perfect opportunity to stop for some cupcakes in Beverly Hills. I can't believe how small Austin is in this picture!





Audrey was soooo Beverly Hills.....
Ryan, Lisa and I got Red Velvet, and of course, the chocolate one was Audrey's.
 Yum!

May 25, 2011

Our New Puppy?

May 24, 2011

Escape Artist

Austin tried to escape the other day. He isn't even walking on his own yet, but gets around the house extremely well just crawling or walking and holding on to furniture. Now he's found the doors and the doorknobs and understands that they have a purpose. I heard the doorknob rattling, and found him standing next to the door with the door handle almost down. Thankfully he's not tall enough to reach the dead bolt.

f/2.0, 1/1250 sec, ISO 100

Anyway, I took this opportunity to snap some photos. I've always loved photography, and in the last year I've been really trying to learn a little more about photography. I finally bought my dream camera last year when Austin was born - a Canon DSLR - and I figured because I spent a pretty penny on it, I might as well learn everything about it.

One major thing I've learned so far is that lighting is pretty important. I read somewhere that a cool trick to get good lighting indoors is to open your front door and place your subject just inside. You could do this at the front door, in the garage with the garage door open, or even just next to a big window. Just somewhere that gives you access to good daylight.

I think it worked out pretty well. These photos are SOOC (straight out of the camera, no editing at all). What do you think?

f/2.8, 1/160 sec, ISO 100
f/2.0, 1/800 sec, ISO 100


May 23, 2011

A Princess Carriage




We rode our bikes to pick Audrey up from school a couple Fridays ago. The kids were all still playing on the playground and were extremely interested in why and how we were picking Audrey up with bikes.

"Where is she going to sit?"

"Who's that little boy?"

"Where's your car?"

"She's going to ride in that yellow thing?"

As we rode away, the kids ran along the fence, watching Princess Audrey being pulled away in her carriage bike trailer by her knight on a white horse daddy on a mountain bike.

"Bye Audrey!"

"That's so cool!"

The ride home is pretty cool, mostly because it's entirely downhill. My speedometer showed 21mph and I wasn't pedaling. So cool, in fact, that Austin fell asleep.


May 22, 2011

VK Lace Wrap

You shouldn't be at all surprised to know that I started another project. I made a little error on my Fireside Sweater and wasn't in the mood to rip back the 4 rows to correct it, so I put it aside and started something new. And something that's cotton instead of wool because the weather warmed up and I want something I can actually wear immediately after I finish it.

Here it is: #28 Lace Wrap from Vogue Knitting, Early Fall 2010.



And here's how mine looks so far:

I'm using Knit Picks Shine Sport in Seranade. The color in the picture doesn't look as deep and rich as it is in person. The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, and I ordered this in sport weight by accident. But I got the correct gauge so it looks like it will work out, and will be just a little more lightweight. Perfect for summer.

Don't you just love that nice scalloped edging? That will eventually be the sleeve, and I read some comments on Ravelry that the second sleeve doesn't have much scallop to it. After analyzing the pattern, I've come to the conclusion that it's because the pattern starts in one direction at the first sleeve, and ends on the second sleeve. So I'm trying to figure out how I could reverse the pattern halfway through which would make the sleeves match. I need to test it out first though. More to come!

May 16, 2011

Love this!

May 15, 2011

My Holiday has begun!

Sigh. I keep telling myself I'm going to update my blog more. I finally started my "Holiday Sweater", aka The Fireside Sweater, and was going to post all about my progress, but....life got in the way, as usual. It's tough to take the photos, put them on the computer and find the energy to write about it.

Anyway, I ordered up my yarn - Knitpicks Gloss HW in Cream. I had this yarn in mind when I decided I wanted to make this sweater, but it was a bit pricey....and then it was on sale in March for 35% off....sweet! I ordered the pattern, and while I was waiting for the yarn to show up, studied the pattern like crazy, browsing Ravelry for all the finished projects....and determined that I like how the Small looked the best, but....how to make it look this way in Large/X-Large? Not to mention the pattern doesn't provide an option for X-Large. Basically, there is more space between all the cables in the Large size, which I think takes away from the beauty of the sweater. I want it to look "cabley". Is that a word?

So, I finally got my yarn and did a swatch, crunched some numbers, and re-worked the design to make it work for me. So hopefully at the end of all this I will have a sweater that looks the way I envisioned and fits me PERFECTLY. I can't wait.

Here's the Right Front piece:

It took me about two weeks to finish this, and then a little less than two weeks to do the Left Front. I'm now working on the Back, which I estimated to take me three weeks. However, I just took a week off for some baby gift knitting, so I figure I have two more weeks to finish the back. Then the sleeves will probably take a week each, and then blocking and seaming it all together will take another week. So I should be done with this around the end of June.

Perfect. Who wouldn't want a warm wool sweater just in time for summer?

Flat Ted

That's what the pattern is called. It's from Zoe Mellor's Knitted Toys. A friend of mine is having a baby boy in June, so I thought I'd make Flat Ted for the little guy. I had some blue cotton yarn in my stash....perfect.

Isn't he cute?


The only modifications I did was a knitted scarf instead of ribbon for the neck, and buttons for eyes instead of felt. Audrey wanted to keep him. I told her I'd make her one in pink, but she said she wanted blue. Random. Blue is not even on her list of favorite colors. I ended up agreeing to make another one just for her so I could wrap this one up for the baby.