A birthday and a lot of knitting

We went to Orlando earlier this month to celebrate Barb's birthday.  Anna helped me with the cake decorating:

Her "help" consisted of color scheme suggestions ("Pink and purple!!"--I skipped the purple) and serving as a taste-tester for the frosting.

We went out for lunch to the Columbia restaurant--love that place:

And then went back to Barb's apartment for cake. 

Anna asked me when I made the cake if Grandma was turning one, because I only put one candle on the cake.  I laughed and said no, and asked her how old she thought Grandma was going to be.  She thought for a minute, then said "Six!  No, seven!"  So we'll just go with that. :-)

Happy birthday to Grandma!

******

Totally switching gears, I have a few finished knitting projects for 2014.  I finally finished a sweater I've been working on for 3 months--it utilized a website called "CustomFit" that allows you to input your measurements and desired sweater features, then spits out a pattern customized for you.  One of the frustrating things about knitting is that it's hard to adjust for fit once you're finished (unlike sewing), so having a pattern tailored to your figure is pretty fantastic.

I tried a v-neck sweater, because most store-bought v-necks tend to gape a little around the neckline for me and have a little too much fabric through the chest.  (One of the many tragedies of having a figure like a surfboard.) (I borrowed that from another sewing blogger who shares my figure woes.)

Anyway, the neckline was perfect, and the waist shaping was almost right on.  Pretty cool.

I also finished some cashmere hats for the boys.  They weren't all that impressed, but I think the hats will be perfect if we ever go skiing--soft and not a bit itchy:

I also used up some leftover yarn to make a cool reversible hat.  It ended up a little snug for my head, but Anna ended up stealing it away, so no matter.  She was fascinated with switching it back and forth.

Lace version:

 To striped version.  Oooh la la!

And finally, I used some scrap yarn to make some legwarmers for Anna.  The pattern came from a book that Cindy gave me for my birthday--so many cute patterns in that book.  Anna thought these were fun.  She doesn't mind some crazy colors!

 

Ta da!