Dixieland delight

Sorry I'm such a blogging tease. I was quite the active blogger last week, and then nothing. Whatever did you do with yourselves? I apologize. But I was MIA for good reason: My little sister turned 21, so I went down to Alabama for a visit. Coincidentally, this past weekend was also her school's Homecoming, and she was in charge of the parade (wow!), so I thought I'd share a few photos here. Don't worry, crafty endeavors will return soon. I've actually been fairly productive recently despite all the election brouhaha and lots of exciting copy editing.

It took a lot of work -- and sweet-talking -- to get the parade going, but everything eventually fell into place, the judges took their seats and the show began.











Then it was time for football (No.-1-team-in-the-nation football, if I might add)...





We sat in the student section, which made me feel old...



But we were next to the Queen, which was cool.



Of course, there were typical birthday shenanigans as well.



Looks like she liked her gifts.



All in all, a good weekend. Happiness.

Icing on the cake

Here are some better FO pics of the Wallis cardigan I made for my mom's birthday. She came up to visit me this past weekend, so we staged a little fashion shoot.

Down to the wire

I made the Wallis Cardigan from Interweave Knits Summer for my mom's birthday. I like how it turned out...perhaps I'll make one for myself. I haven't put the buttons on it yet because I was literally knitting down to the wire on this one (several nights of three-hour naps and a mad race to the post office at 11:30 last Saturday morning). But when I see her next, I'll add them on. I made the smallest size using six balls of Ella Rae Baby Cotton. More photos over at Ravelry (subtropicalkatie).

'Every time I come around yo' city, bling bling'

Who doesn't love a little bling? I wanted to make my friend, Kate, some sparkle flair for her 26th birthday last week. So, with a little of this:


and a bit of this for inspiration:

photo: Mccallpattern.com

I came up with this:


Doesn't she look fabulous?


Coming to a blog post soon: Kate's crafty endeavors plus more obnoxious sparkly garments!