Cripes it's been that long since I posted on this blog!
Time flies.

Here's a run down of current life:

I'm Kate and I'm 30 something.
I'm originally from England and still sound like I am (mostly).
I live in Florida near Tampa.
I have 3 amazing children, Andrew 13, Abby almost 12 and Alex 8.
Husband Rick and I have been married nearly 20 years!
We have a dog, Merlin who is a lab mix we adopted from the shelter as a puppy 6 years ago.
I work part time as a Pharmacy Technician but am looking for a career since I just graduated with my Associate's Degree in Office Administration.
We just bought our first house!

The house buying is what triggered me to come look at my old blogs.
We've been making some improvements to our house and I've started a garden which I have no idea whether it will be successful but I am learning along the way!

So, I finished the circular shrug. Annnnnd....ugh. It looks terrible on! It's way too wide, and not long enough. I'm not sure how I managed to screw it up so badly, but I have. It's not wearable. And then to make it worse when I tried to unpick the seams I'd sewed on the arm holes, I snipped the wrong thread and then had to do a big repair job so the whole thing didn't unravel. I'd have to take back the whole stupid thing and redo it. But I'm not going to. I'm thinking of making it into a weird blanket or something if I extend it all around the edges. Argh.

Little Lamb Sock Critter, As Seen on Knitting Daily TV Episodes 504, 505, 506, and 507 - Knitting Daily

This is the Knit-along I'm going to be trying!

This is the cable Saxon Braid I'm doing for the back of the circular shrug. This is one and almost a half repeat, I'm thinking I will need at least 3 probably 4 repeats to make the back long enough.

I decided to revamp the look of this blog but I can't decide if I just didn't like the old one better. It may undergo some changes over the next few days.

I added a twitter feed too. I've had a twitter account FOREVER, before it became all popular. But I don't use it much except to read other people's updates. Maybe if I had a phone service that did fancy stuff like texting and posting pictures etc I would use it more. Anyway, I thought I would make one just craft themed to keep it separate.

In other news, I'm working on a circular shrug for myself. It's in acrylic because I figure with 3 kids I will probably end up washing it often, and it's in navy blue...mainly because I couldn't find purple like I wanted. I've done the ribbing and now I'm on to the decreasing and starting the main body, and here's where I'm stumped. I can't say I liked doing the mock rib on Abby's one, and I want to put something more interesting on the back. Only I can't decide what. I'm thinking maybe a saxon braid up the back?

I'm thinking about making my first shawl too. In the evenings there is one side of the couch that I usually end up sitting on that is right in the path of two AC vents and an overhead fan, and it is freezing, but if we turn them off the rest of the house gets hot. Any suggestions on shawl patterns? This is Florida so it doesn't need to be too heavy.

A circular shrug for my daughter. Honestly it came out a lot smaller than I'd hoped, but at least I know what I'm doing for next time. She likes it anyway and it's fine for the weather here. I'd like to make myself one, but for the size I'd need I could see it being very boring and no doubt I'd get too bored half way through. I might put some sort of cable pattern on the back of mine to make it more interesting, maybe a saxon braid.

My first sock! It's for my mother in law (she has big feet). Pleased with this. Need to do the other one....

Falling Water scarf. My first attempt at lace, I think it will be pretty whenever I get around to finishing it (so, in time for me to retire probably). I don't find lace very easy, I'm too distracted by the children I think.

I woke up with an idea this morning, realising it was the World Cup football match between England and USA and I, as an expat Brit living in America had no England attire to wear for it. Not that I am all that interested in football to be honest with you, but I still like to show some solidarity. I have some union jack stuff, but nothing just England. So I needed something quick and easy that I could get done before the match, and here it is, an England wristband.

I used fingering weight knit picks palette, and doubled the strands because that's all I had in the right colours. I think you could use up to worsted without much problem, but you might have to play around with the size, the first one I made was far too small to get over my big hands so I gave it to my daughter.

Pull off small amounts of the yarn to use or you will get them in a tangle.

Materials:
Size US5 straight needles
White yarn
Red yarn

For XL size CO 40 stitches (decrease by increments of 4 for smaller sizes), using the long tail method (I did not do this and that cast on could do with a bit more give) in white yarn.

Row 1: K1 P1 across in white
Row 2: K1 P1 across to rib in white.
Row 3: K 19 in white, K2 in red, K19 in white
Row 4: P19 in white, P2 in red, P19 in white
Row 5: Repeat row 3
Row 6: Repeat row 4
Row 7: K across in red
Row 8: P across in red
Row 9-13: Repeat rows 3-6
Row 14-15: repeat rows 1-2
Bind off loosely

Stitch two ends together to form a tube
.

Even worse than before about updating this! Not that anyone is reading anyway.

The winter was spent knitting a lot, mainly hats and gloves for everyone because it was COLD. We had a million snowstorms in Kentucky.

I also started making Abby some dresses and tops for the summer, with the mission being to make them as cheaply as possible. I snapped up a few patterns when they were on sale, and scoured the remnants bucket for fabrics. I now have a massive tub full of fabric. So far I have completed one dress, almost completed another, made a top and I did make one other dress but I was not happy how it came out, so it's now a rather nice nightdress for her.


These things will be especially useful now, as we spent the spring moving down to Tampa, Florida. So I guess the pair of gloves I spent a long time knitting this winter (and have almost finished) will not be a whole lot of use down here....ah well, maybe the union jack handwarmers will be.