No kids' sweater or fun hat today.

Instead we have an incredibly long sweater dress. No, not knitted by me. I'm sure it was knitted by some machine somewhere. Because, really, who is going to knit ALL of that?!

So, I've been in a bit of a funk recently. I'm not knitting much and not sewing at all. I pretty much crash on the sofa at night, exhausted from my new life as an overworked and underpaid chauffeur. (We've gotten to the point where the boys are having different activities at different times and each afternoon has me dropping one off, then setting the kitchen timer so I won't be late to pick up the other one and so on and so on. I did, however, find 35¢ in their laundry the other day, which I kept as a tip.) Anyhoo, when my mom brought me this crazy long sweater dress that belongs to her friend and asked me if I could alter it a bit for her, I thought a little something different might help me get back into the swing of things.

The dress is actually a pretty awesome cable knit. But very sensibly, my mom's friend would prefer that it were regular sweater length. After a quick consultation with my knitting group, I've got a plan. I'll be carefully cutting off the lower half, being sure to secure the stitches and then reclaiming a bunch of the yarn to reknit the ribbing. As long as it doesn't involve any grafting in that cable pattern, I can do it!

This weekend, wee turned three! I can't believe it, but there is no denying that this is the face of a three year-old.

Also unbelievable is that fact that I've had this stripy raglan sweater on the needles for wee's entire life, but it is still not finished.

It's as close as can be though, with just the neck to finish. I ran into some sizing issues while I was doing the neck shaping (considering I cast on for a one year size, but am knitting to a four year length, I'm amazed I only ran into problems here at the end) and tested wee's three year-old patience quite a bit with multiple try-ons and adjustments. But it's all good now and the only thing keeping wee from her new sweater is about 75 ends that still need to be woven in and the unseasonably warm spring-like weather we're having. But both those will be taken care of soon enough, I'm sure.

Until then, she's loving being three.

Three: old enough to pick out your own outfit (American Girl shirt and twirly skirt), but still young enough to play with dolly (see her on the floor there?). And the perfect age to dance, dance, dance.

You can find the Team Germany Hat pattern here!

(Although, after watching the Vancouver Olympics, don't you just want be Canadian?!)

The boys love their new team Germany hats!

They've worn them to school every day this week. In fact, one's already gotten lost and found again (losing the hat is actually a true sign of affection, since it means that he's brought it with him to wear at recess and after school activities and only lost it at the bottom of his school locker). The boys are genuinely proud of their hats and I couldn't be more pleased.

I did change the decreases at the top from my first version. The beanie style decreases (paired decreases along four axes) weren't exactly right for the boys. It seemed like their skinny little heads couldn't quite fill out the top of the hats and the decreases looked like points on their heads. So I reworked them as traditional decreases and they fit perfectly now, nice and smooth, just like the luge helmets I was using as a model. It was fun copying the slick design of the athletes' helmets and caps. These were simple to make but just in case there's anyone out there who'd like to make one, I'll save you the time of figuring out the numbers and post a pattern later this week.

My silly boys could not stop from giggling when they faced each other for this photo. Who says the Germans have no sense of humor!

The crocheted monkey earflap hat (pattern here) was way cute even before it got the ears and the flower, but it is crazy cute with them! The Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran was a great choice for the yarn, with a lot of body and squoosh, giving the hat a nice shape in the crochet, and rich colors that look perfect with wee's hot pink jacket.

She loves the hat!

The many moods of monkey: thoughtful monkey (was it don't jump on the bed or jump on the bed?); hiding monkey (hidden monkey, crouching wee one); and everyone's favorite, silly monkey!

As I was taking pictures of wee in the finished hat, an image flashed in my head of a similar picture taken of me around when I was in kindergarten wearing a brown monkey costume for a school festival. I searched through the photo albums and found myself as a little monkey girl.

Aww, it's like the circle of life. Only with monkey costumes.

The first of the boys' German olympic hats is done!

And lookie, here's today's German gold medalist in Super Combined, Maria Riesch, wearing a brimmed version of the German flag cap.

Cool!

PS - The boys are, of course, also Team USA. B was the first one yesterday to run to tell daddy that the US had taken back the lead in the medal count and S has spent the last week learning to play the Star Spangled Banner on his guitar! The recent USA vs. Germany curling match was a real crisis for them until they realized they could just be for whoever wins. Who knew the Germans could curl?