A birthday and some knitting

Photo taken in August while on vacation.
My how time flies. We had a busy week. Pumpkin Girl turned 8 last Saturday. Instead of a birthday party with friends, she opted for -
1) the traditional meal at Red Robin's (she gets a kick when the staff sings Happy Birthday to her).
2) a trip to Chuck E. Cheese to play
3) shopping at Limited Too (Grandma's gift)
4) and a trip to a small boutique that carries Hello Kitty stuff.

On top of that, she got a set on inline skates (which she uses inside the house) and some other toys she's been asking for. She also decided that she wants to get her ears pierced. This will have to wait until this Saturday though.

Mr. Bear eyeing his share of the celebration.
Since room painting was put on hold this weekend, this meant I had some time to knit on Sunday while doing all the laundry. Little Man sure has an eye for color. Look at the color combination he picked out for his top-down sweater.

Sneak peek of School Spirit Sweater
Happy Friday!

Bad Blogger and a pictureless post

For those of you still hanging around, thanks!

Knitting has been put on the back burner. I started Chic Knits' Ribby Shell when we got back from vacation in August and I knit 60% of it in 4 evenings before I had to set it aside. We were bitten by the home redecoration bug and have been doing a bit of musical chairs.

1) Pumpkin Girl moved out of her cotton candy pink (as in her pink Hello Kitty TV melded to her wall) room. She needs bigger closet space (she's going to be 8 soon after all) so we moved her to the guest room (2nd largest room). Of course, blue guest room had to be repainted to lilac (her choice). Black Ikea dressers were repainted white.

2) Little Man will move into his room when we cover the cotton candy pink walls with a light green (his choice) paint. What used to be the nursery was repainted a pale orange and will eventually be a study room (moonlighting also as a craft room for me) as soon as we get all the stuff moved out.

Since weekends have been mostly dedicated to painting, I barely had the energy to pick up the knitting. Forget the weeknights because I'm always driving Pumpkin Girl to all her evening activities:

Monday - Swim class
Tuesday/Thursday - Soccer practice
Wednesday - Religion class
Saturday - Soccer game

Last Friday, I picked up the needles and finished off the Ribby Shell while watching our regular Friday Sci-Fi shows. I only need to seam the shoulders then it will be ready for a pictorial. In the meantime, I started the School Spirit Sweater for Little Man. I pulled out the LB Cotton Ease stash and he picked Icy Blue/Orangeade as his colors.

There are still some projects lingering on my sidebar that need to be finished. Oh and get this ... DH let me knit him a sweater. He wants a man-sized Placket Pullover like Little Man's. Buying yarn has been put on hold until I finish his sweater. Yikes! I better get started on that.

My Beach Knit

I started this project at home way back when. I brought it along to finish up while on vacation. ChicKami was knit by the pool and on the beach. I overheard an interesting conversation while I was knitting poolside.

Man says to wife(?): What is she doing? Is that [overhead fighter planes drown all noise]
Wife answers: No, she's knitting. My mom used to knit.

I quickly pack up my stuff and go searching for my family in the indoor pool.

ChicKami
Pattern: Chic Knits
Yarn: 2+ balls TLC Cotton Plus in Mint
Needles: Addi Circulars in US #6 and #8
(07/25/06 - 08/18/06)
I knit the skinny strap version. I will definitely knit another one ... maybe the wide strap version next. TLC Cotton Plus is becoming a staple in my household. I love how it holds up in the washer and dryer. I just wish my local craft store carried more colors.

Beach bound

I'm still here. Visitors arrived at Casa Bear Knits on Aug 5th and stayed until the 13th. During that time, I must have knit all of 3 rows on my ChicKami. To top it off, sprinkler guys accidentally cut our cable access so no Internet access at home until cable guys fix it on the 21st.

After I dropped off the visitors at IAD on Sunday morning, we turned around and packed up the car to head off to our yearly beach trip.

Mondo Cable in action
Once we were settled in and everything, I pulled out my project only to notice that I had to rip out the last 8 rows as I had an extra stitch.

ChicKami on the beach
All is well now and I will have a FO to post soon. Pictures to follow later.

From the mouths of babes

Pumpkin Girl loves to draw. Last night she was drawing clothes on a sheet of paper. She looks over at me and this is how our conversation went ...

PG: "What are you knitting Mom?"
Me: Your tank.

Pumpkin Girl: "What will it look like?"
Me: Hmm. A simple tank with 2 straps.

Pumpkin Girl: "Wouldn't it be funner if you design it on a sheet of paper and have someone else knit it for you?"
Me: [speechless] ... but I enjoy the knitting part of it, too.

Mind you Pumpkin Girl is only 7 years old.