Long time no see!

This is the final product of my lovely granddaughter, Chrissy, in her smocked dress. She really is this beautiful and this happy, too. I almost cried when my son-in-law sent me the picture on Easter Sunday.

This is the pattern from which I made the next pictures for Chrissy. You can find it here. I have to admit that I copied Alison from the Blue Blog. She had done this in the most beautiful lavendar shade for her daughter and I fell in love with it. This is Knitpicks Shine sport yarn in the plum shade. The first and third pictures following this are truer to the color than the middle one. I had lots of fun knitting this and even followed Alison's advice to use the smaller needles on the yoke areas. I'm in love with the yarn and pattern, obviously. Thanks, Alison!

I just happened to have these kitty buttons. Don't they look sweet?
If I get a picture of Chrissy wearing this, I'll be sure to post it!

My knitting lately has been simple, because my stamina from my January surgery just hasn't returned the way I want. I had to leave for almost a week to go to a Public Library Association conference in Minneapolis a couple of weeks ago and it really exhausted me. Then I was home for a week of work, barely, when my husband and I flew to Las Vegas for 6 days. We spent time seeing my brother, helping him with things from Mom's house, visiting Mom in the nursing home 3 times and we did get some gambling done for fun. I broke even, actually, which is amazing for me. It sure made the trip more fun, though!!!

More smocking

These are pics of the latest outfit I made for Chrissy. It's a size 1 blouse, jumper and panties in blue small checked gingham. I'm hoping it will fit through the summer without the blouse for a sundress, particularly around the 4th of July. I made this as a surprise for Helen and Chris and they loved it! Hopefully I'll get a picture of Chrissy in it, too. Then I may be able to post it here.

I sent her the pale yellow tulip dress for Easter and also found her some lavendar Carter's pieces for playwear for the summer and fall. Onsie top, Skirt with panties in it and a long pair of pants in a lightweight cotton that can be rolled up and buttoned after rolling. Cute!

I'm working on my entrelac shawl edging now, so when it's finished and blocked I'll try to get a couple of pics to post. Also hoping to start a jumper dress for Chrissy, knitted, of course!

;-)

I'm back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's been more than 2 months, darn it. But my surgery is over, there's no cancer, and I'm back to work, too. I've gained a lot of insight through all of this, but also got quite a bit of smocking and knitting while I was resting and healing.

Here's the round yolk of a bishop style bubble.


Here's our sweetie pie loving her toes! She's 7 1/2 months old now and still the sweetest baby in the world!
Here's the neck of her round-yoke Easter dress. Aren't the tulips pretty?
And here's a bonnet knit from cotton, to go with the dress. Only problem is it's a little too big.
Last, but not least, here's a new order of yarn from Knitpicks. The gray is for me and the Pink/purple is to knit something for the sweetest girl we know.

Well.........Thanksgiving is over!

It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted and I have loads of pictures to post finally, so beware! I've been sewing, cooking, knitting and even doing a bit of needlepoint (pics later).

This is the 4th and 5th pictures. I finished Chrissy's Christmas outfits. The first one is her Christmas dress in a pretty plaid with Christmas Trees smocked in a drop yoke style dress. It is long-sleeved, with a 4 1/2 inch hem. Size 12mo/1yr. She's grown so quickly, we are hoping this is the right size for Christmas. Here are a couple of pictures of it.

These are pictures 2 and 3. The next thing I made and finished is a cute coverall out of the nicest finewale cordoroy with the baby cardinals done in English smocking, too. This might even fit her next fall, if we're lucky. I made the straps long, the legs are long anyway (size 12mo/1yr) and I put gripper snaps inside the inside leg seams. I'm feeling pretty good about this, too.

The First Picture is a jumpsuit. I had made her a cute jumpsuit before birth with pretty rocking horses on the front and she wore it on Wednesday. We had wonderfully warm weather that day, so she was quite comfortable in the short sleeves. Take a look!

Home from Las Vegas

Well........we didn't win, but we didn't lose a lot and I brought home this yarn along with 3 new pairs of shoes from the SAS shoe store. I also bought 4 new pashmina shawls from Bijoux Turner in the Forum Shoppes at Caeser's Palace. One is for a gift. I found a couple of them with prints, rather than solid color, too. Nice!

This yarn is beautiful Egyptian cotton. I'm hoping to knit, on big needles, a summer shawl with it. Wish me luck. I have so many things on the needles right now that I'm not sure I'll finish anything very soon. The baby is still growing, and my supply of baby knits is growing, too, but nothing new has a picture. I'll try to take a few pictures in the next week or so and post them. Bibs, burpers, blankets, sweaters, caps, booties, smocked outfits, bonnets and toys are all either done or nearly done. The shower is on 16 June, so I need to finish up this next week to have time to wrap properly.

;-)

Some news

Well...........................It's been a while since I posted, but I've been busy with travel and needlework, for sure. We went to our daughter's home a week ago for a 4 day weekend and had a great visit. We did loads of things to help her, because her husband is away for about 6 weeks. We even bought and planted two dogwood trees that were promised as house warming gifts almost a year ago. The yard is pretty well settled and their fence and deck have been done, so the trees were appropriate to be done.
I've been doing some smocking and knitting for the baby, but no pictures to show for it, yet. I've finished the log cabin baby blanket and a bib. I've started a Genius burpcloth and am smocking a cute white round-yoke dress and bonnet. Now for some machine work to finish the smocked outfits.
Nascar is in town this weekend and the race just got rained out, so DH and DS will return to the track tomorrow afternoon, so I can get lots of sewing done while I watch on tv. I did have dinner out with my best friend this evening and we had a good time getting caught up with each other's happenings.
;-)