Gorgeous in Red

Last Sunday we celebrated our younger daughter's birthday. She was born 2 days after Christmas. Before you groan and say, "Oh, the poor thing," she didn't do so poorly growing up. :) We tried very hard to make her day special. We had a birthday cake every year, even though we usually had about 3 pies left from Christmas dinner. AND even though there was a turkey or ham in the refrigerator with leftovers for a week, she picked her favorite meal and mom made it for her birthday dinner. We figured out early in her life that getting her friends to a birthday party was going to take some ingenuity. I discovered that if we held the party a couple of weeks before Christmas and that if I stressed the point that the moms could drop their daughters off for 4 hours of FREE "babysitting," they could go and get Christmas shopping done. That was the trick and it worked year after year.

I can remember several years, when family would visit us for Christmas and because they were here, Anna's day was extra special those years! Not everyone gets to have extended family visit for their birthday. The one thing she did miss, though, was taking cupcakes to her friends in school. Oh, yes, we homeschooled, but she was in school for k-4 through 2nd grade.

I learned that I had to make her birthday projects before Christmas projects were finished. One year, I thought, I'll just whip out those doll dresses and be done. I have 2 days from Christmas to her birthday. Hahahaha! The joke was on me. I forgot how busy it is with children and family visiting. I did get those projects done, but lost a lot of sleep.

I learned to get the wrapping paper and card for her gifts before Christmas. Nothing worse than fighting the crowds who wanted the 50% off Christmas stuff, when all you wanted was a birthday card and birthday paper. Some people didn't realize that there was more to life than a 50% off box of cards. LOL! My kid has a birthday and that is very important, get outta my way. :)

Well, this year, I had her shrug done before THANKSGIVING! I was so happy with myself. Then I had to figure out where to put it, so I didn't lose it. I wanted to post it on here, but didn't want her to see it. She does occasionally float by and read the blog.




Here is Anna's shrug. A gorgeous red from Brown Sheep's Lambspride Bulky yarn. The directions are from Cathy Carron's book, Knitting Sweaters from the Top Down. She has formulas at the back of the book for using most weight yarns and making a sweater. It is up to you do decide the size, length, sleeve length and added design elements. I had a lot of fun figuring out, exactly what I wanted and the cable pattern on the front was really a fun design to knit. Below is the close up of the button. I really liked this button. Found it at JoAnn's Fabrics. The lighter pink color looks as if it is in-laid into the button. I thought it was the perfect finish.