PA310030
Originally uploaded by aylounsberry

Way back from October - just a photo of the kids so that you know they're not too old to dress up for Halloween.

Batman, Robin and Thing 1 (the photo is self explanatory)

Thanks for humoring me.

Overdue Update

So it's been a long time since I've updated this blog. I've done an okay job updating Ravelry with my knitting projects but it's been too long since I've update the rest of my life.

Let's see since August of last year - wow, we're almost done with another school year. Evan is in 4th grade, Cece is in 2nd, and Will is in 1st grade. The kids are doing well. Everyone played basketball over the winter. It was Cece's and Will's first basketball teams. It was fun to watch and they got better with each game. Evan played for St. James's 4th grade team. His coach was great. They learned a lot and won most of their games.

Evan has continued to play soccer. He practiced all winter at the Omaha Football Club's indoor facility. He's next goal is to make the under 11 premier team. He's always got a soccer ball at his feet.

Cece is going to make her first communion this April. We're going to have a get together afterwards, with an Edible Arrangement (fruit), a cake from Dairy Queen, and some California rolls. Sounds like a nice combination.

Cece decided not to play softball this year but may try it next year.

Will will be playing baseball soon and is excited to be on a team with the St. James gang. He is also playing soccer this year for OFC, Academy. This means a lot more practices! Thankfully, Dave takes care of most of the sports details.

Sarah is now engaged and planning a wedding for July 2, 2010. Cece and I went to MPLS for her first wedding shower. It was fun and nice to hang out with both her and Roger.

A few other bits and pieces. Dave bought me a Cannon Rebel, D40?, for Christmas. I'm still getting used to it.

I'm going to make serious effort to update this blog more often . . .

AUGUST BIRTHDAYS

Summer birthdays - Evan is now 10, and Cece is 8. We had our usual birthday party - opened presents in the morning with Dave and had the Howards over for cupcakes in the evening.

Cece has since cut her hair - 10 inches! Her ponytail is still on the kitchen table waiting to be mailed off to Locks of Love.

Evan, as you can see, hasn't had a hair cut in quite some time. I love his hair - it's wild, frizzy and the perfect hair for an up and coming soccer star.

Sorry this post is all janky - photos everywhere all haphazardly placed. But hey, I'm just trying to post more often.

Knitting photos to come . . . ooo, I know you're all anxiously awaiting my photos.

Knitting Continues

Originally uploaded by aylounsberry

This cute little hat is from a Ravelry pattern called Toasty Topper. I made if from orange and navy wool from the yarn closet. It's made according to the pattern with only a few modifications - if you look at the comments listed for the pattern you'll see that the short rows should/can be done in the reverse order, 21, 14 and 7. It was a quick knit and turned out cute. I hope the parents of the little Chicago Bears fan like it.

I also made this cute little hat, again from a pattern called Cozy on Ravelry. I made it with 3 colors of Cotton Ease and lined it with white fleece for softness and warmth.

I made the Women's Day Sweater from 1968? A pattern that a fellow Raveler so kindly lent me. It's made from Cotton Ease. I enjoyed knitting it but I'm unhappy (as always) with the button band. The cute buttons either help by drawing attention to them or hinder by drawing attention to the button band itself, I couldn't decide so I left all of it alone. I packaged it up and sent it on its merry way.

I was however, pleased with the decreases on the back and how nicely they matched.

Challenger Soccer Camp

P6260086
Originally uploaded by aylounsberry

This summer Evan and Will (and the Howards too!) attended the Challenger Soccer Camp - sometimes called British Soccer Camp. We had the pleasure of hosting one of the coaches Michael Howes (I hope I'm spelling that right), anyway, it was so much fun. The week of soccer camp was HOT - the hottest week of the summer so far. Everyone made it though, even Michael on his torn ACL.

Chevron Love Mittens

I was so excited when I saw that there was going to be a kit for these mittens. I broken my Lent vow to give up buying yarn for 40 days and purchsed the kit the very day it became available. Here's the problem. I don't like the way they're knitting up - so many color changes! The advice given on Ravelry was to carry all the colors up the side of the mitten (sort of twisting them as you go). Like most good advice, I didn't take it and began on my own version of carrying the yarn. I hate the way the inside of the mitten looks. My delimma is to frog or carry on - I think I can start over without frogging and then only frog if needed. Thank goodness there's no snow in the forecast.

p.s. get ready to see more frequent updates on this blogsite - I never knew you could blog right from flicker. Here I was doing the cut/paste thing.

Clara Dress With a Splash of Sepia

I took this photo outside in bright sunlight and then played with the colors/cropping in IPhoto. I think it makes the stitch definition stand out.I just found out that you can blog right from Flickr - WOW maybe that will speed up the process.