Hot, Hot, Hot!

We had a little excitement round these parts today.

When we got home from gymnastics we found that one of our neighbors was trapped in the elevator. There was a 3 inch opening, so we could talk to him and make sure he had water. (it was about 100 degrees) Then we called the management company. They said they'd have the elevator company come right out.

But they didn't come right out. So I called 911 (my first time ever....I was kind of nervous!). They did come right out! In fact they sent 2 truckloads of good looking men in less than 5 minutes. They used a crowbar and had him out in about 10 minutes. Our neighbor was fine, although a little overheated.

Noey was pretty excited about the whole thing, and it made me feel good that the Fire Department responds so quickly. It also was a good life lesson for Noey. We saw someone in trouble and we helped him.

In other news, although not nearly as exciting, I received a little package by Royal Mail today! I had seen these Sirdar patterns in my British magazine, but couldn't find them anywhere. Ironic because the pattern is called "California Girls". I ordered them only 5 days ago from Simply Wool in the UK and they arrived today! That's better service than some U.S. companies.

Back to school already?

Last year when Noey was just entering Kindergarten and I was new to the whole school thing, I naively thought I could just go out mid-August and find everything I needed. Wrong! (Noey is required to wear a uniform, and the school is very specific about what can and cannot be worn) By the time I got there most things were sold out, especially in the smaller sizes. (it's tough being a skinny little thing!) I was fortunate to find just the basics. Luckily, Noey was new to the whole school thing too, and didn't realize you have to have a new backpack and lunch box every year, so she happily used her Tinkerbell backpack and lunchbox from preschool.

This year as soon as the uniforms showed up in the sale ads I was at the front door of Meryvn's, Target, and Penney's, and I sent my mom to Walmart. Over this past week I am happy to report we found 2 jumpers, 2 skorts, 4 short sleeve shirts, 4 long sleeve shirts, 2 pairs of shoes, a sweater, a backpack, and a lunch box! and now we're officially done with Back to School shopping!

I'm just about to bind off the body of the Summer Cardigan. I'm making it a little shorter than what the pattern says. I think it will be more summery that way. Under it, Mabel is wearing a dress I started a long, long time ago. (possibly before Noey was born!) So long ago that I've lost the facing pieces and the pattern directions. So I'm going to wing it and see if I can finish the neckline without a facing. That and a hem, and we're good to go!

Last month while perusing the magazines at Borders I happened upon "Britain's Best Selling Knitting Magazine" Simply Knitting. Since I'm a big fan of all things British I bought it.
Nothing really jumped out at me, but it was fun to look at, and it came with this groovy knitting bag, so I figured it was worth the 9 bucks I paid for it! It did say to look out for the accessories pouch that would be in the next issue.....I'm a sucker for bags and such......so I've been stalking Border's ever since. Today I finally got my pouch!

Again, nothing really exciting in the latest magazine, but I dig my little set!! There is one sweater, or jumper as they call it, that I like, but I don't understand some of the terms......so I don't know if I'd ever attempt it.

I have to say this page caught my eye! It's a bunch of British truckers posing in nothing but their boots and knitted undies! How lovely!

It was for a charity calender, so I guess I shouldn't be too critical!

mmmnnnn....wonder how Joe would look in a pair of knitted, furry undies? (he'd wear them too!)

Breaking News!

Noey lost a tooth! It came out during the night last night, we found it in the bed this morning!

Losing teeth has been so easy and painless for this child. She lost two on the bottom already, and they just popped right out.

In Knitting News......

I've been working steadily on both Picovoli and the Summer Cardigan. I've done a couple of rounds of waist decreases on Picovoli and I'm almost to the divide for the sleeves on the Summer Cardigan.

I've actually been able to knit a lot lately. For some unknown reason we have free cable this week.....so we've been sitting on the couch, enjoying the air conditioning, (I gave up worrying about the expense when it hit 105 degrees!) watching the Disney Channel. Our brains are turning to jello, but we're cool and I've accomplished a lot on my projects!

G'day!

Excuse me while I take a trip down memory lane. (no knitting content today.....please indulge me!)

I've been thinking a lot about Australia lately.

Last December my Ornament Exchange Pal from Australia sent Noey a book called "Six White Boomers". It had a music CD with it. The book disappeared for a while in the black hole we call Noey's room and it recently reappeared, so we've been listening to it in the car...over and over and over again. It's a really cute song... until you've heard it 100 times!

Recently I've made 2 new knit blog friends, Katt and Sue, both from Australia.

Today we rented Scooby Doo and the Legend of the Vampire, and guess what? It's set in Australia!!

So.....all this is leading up to our wonderful Australian adventure 7 years ago. I have been all over the world (London, Paris, Rome, Frankfurt, Canada, Mexico) all without Joe. He claims he doesn't like to travel, but once I get him out of town, he has a great time!

Anyway, for our 10th anniversary I turned to Joe one day and asked him if he could go anywhere in the world, where would he go? He answered "Australia!" The next day I went to the travel agent and booked our trip before he could change his mind.

We flew to Sydney on June 24, 1999. We stayed at nice but simple hotel (read: cheap), The Sydney Vista, and we walked, and walked, and walked from one end of Sydney to the other. We went to Darling Harbour and the Sydney Aquarium. (that was awesome!) We went to The Rocks and shopped at the boutiques. We had dinner at Phillip's Foote. We took the ferry over to the Taronga Zoo. We rode to the top of the Sydney Tower. We bought souvenirs at the Haymarket flea market. We took a day tour to the Blue Mountains. Joe learned to throw a boomerang and play a didgeridoo. We had tea in Katoomba and Joe tried Vegemite. (is that how you spell it?) We made a friend at the deli counter of Cole's Express, and she made sandwiches for us each morning as we started out on our days' adventures.

Here we are at the Three Sisters.

We got to feed kangaroos at the Featherdale Wildlife Park.

These kangaroos were aggressive! (like the goats at US petting zoos) I was kinda afraid of them.

I made a new friend!

We cruised the harbor, right past the Opera House.
Later we actually went to the Opera House to see it up close and personal. We didn't climb the Harbour Bridge. Joe now claims that he wanted to, but I didn't. That's not how I remember it!

It was a fabulous, once in a lifetime, trip. We thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

But the best part of the whole trip was exactly 9 months later Noelle was born!! (she was actually due on March 24, 2000.....but she came early..... that's a story for another day!)

And now for something completely different

Did you ever watch Monty Python? My brother used to love that show. He and his friends used to go around saying the lines and acting out silly skits. "I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok!" I never really got it back then. But I happened to catch a show over the weekend and it was hysterical.

So Picovoli is moving along very s-l-o-w-l-y. It's just a tad tedious. So what's a girl to do but cast on another project. (just when I was starting to get my projects under control!)

I started this Summer Cardigan using some Cotton Ease from the Great Cotton Ease Stash of 2005 (43 skeins!). I've been saving and saving my Cotton Ease, not wanting to use it for the "wrong" project. I had 15 skeins of this blue, (can't remember the name) so I'm planning on making Scoop de Jour as well.

Thank you for all your nice comments about Sitcom Chic, the Fitted Tank, and Picovoli. If I knew how to reply to comments I would write you all back personally!

Gosh, is it Saturday already? This week just flew by.

I started working out and eating healthy earlier this week and it's amazing what just a few days of good food and exercise will do for you. I have had so much energy I hardly know what to do with myself.

I've been working on Picovoli all week, but last night I decided I should finish Sitcom Chic, so that's just what I did.

This morning after I rode the bike, I steamed Sitcom Chic, reorganized my yarn (again) and prioritized my patterns all before 8:00am!

I've noticed that knitters in blogland have been cataloging their stashes, so I decided to catalog my projects. It's scary!! I have 17, count 'em, SEVENTEEN projects lined up. That means yarn and pattern purchased, just waiting to be knit! I kind of wish I hadn't done that because now I feel like I shouldn't buy anything for a while!

Here She Is.....

.......Miss Sitcom Chic. Done, done, done! I love her! She turned out great!
I have big plans for her....pretty floral skirts, long flowing dresses.....but it's just too hot to even put her on right now. It's triple digits during the day, and not really much cooler at night. Good thing we have air conditioning but it's hard for me to enjoy it.....I just can't stop thinking of the expense!

Somehow this child keeps appearing in my pictures!
Clothing optional at Chez Noey!

Noey and Joe went to Islands for lunch today, so I took the opportunity to work on the Fitted Tank while watching Footloose. I was able to pick up the stitches around the neckline, and seam the shoulder using the 3 needle bind off. I dig that! What a nice finish it makes....
Now, I just need to pick up the stitches around the armhole, and seam the sides......something I'm not looking forward to. I'm not good at seaming....in fact I suck at it!!

So Picovoli is coming along, slowly but surely. I'm almost to the dart decreases. I shuttled all the stitches onto some scrap yarn (what a pain in the butt that is) and tried it on myself, then I tried it on Mabel. It fits me just fine, but it looks better on Mabel! (she's much firmer than I am!) But actually I'm happy with the fit. I'm thinking this will be a nice basic piece that I may want to make again and again.
There's that crazy kid again! I think she's dressed this time, though you can't tell from this shot!

Happy Birthday America!

Click here for a reminder of just how beautiful our country is.

Aaaaah, Summertime!

I love Summer! I love the smell of sunscreen. I love planes flying over head with big banners. (we live close to the ocean) I love eating McDonald's in the car on the way home from the beach! I love sitting by the blowup pool and knitting while Noey has fun in the water.

We're having a lazy day today. After a quick trip to JoAnn's (for yarn, of course) and to the market, we made cupcakes with red, white, and blue frosting. Yummy! Then we made fire cracker decorations using toilet paper rolls, foil, and ribbon.

We're going to Grandma & Grandpa's tomorrow to celebrate the 4th (with our cupcakes and decorations) so we bought a slip n' slide yesterday at Target. (hopefully I'll get to sit n' knit by the slip n' slide!)

Some progress on Picovoli. It's pretty slow going on size 4's.
The pattern is really easy, so far. I had a couple of problems that I was able to fix without incident (tears, swearing, etc.) I'm not crazy about the rolling at the neckline and sleeves. Hopefully I can block some of that out.

( Katt - you can find the pattern here.)

We visited with Michael, Amanda, and baby Isabella yesterday. Isabella is just precious and beautiful! She's about 7 months old and a happy girl!
Mom, Amanda, loved the Baby Hoodie Cardigan. It looks to be about the right size......it was just too darn hot yesterday to try it on her.

Happy Saturday!

You can find the Baby Hoodie Cardigan here. It's a free pattern from Knitting Pure and Simple.

I decided to just keep going with Picovoli and see what happens. I need to order a skein or two more of Silk Garden for the pullover, so I could order more Soft Twist as well. Even though it doesn't look like much progress, I have put a lot of work into it and hate to frog it at this point. (I'm using size 4 needles....seems like it takes forever!)

Have a great day!!