The thing about twins is, whenever one of them poops, the other won't be far behind (har, har). My point is, after cleaning up messes from one, I've learned to go ahead and check out the other.

So a while back, after rescuing one blankie from some near-fatal lovin', I decided to take a closer look at blankie number two.

Just as I suspected. The cast on edge was all but completely rubbed away, and stitches had begun to fall. I had to put a brief hold on the holiday knitting until this was taken care of! And the other day, I find another stitch making a run for it. A mother's work is never done.

But oh the joys.

Here they all are, our merry band of sock knitters ready to sock on!

green = finished

Update: Sign up for the sockapalooza is officially closed, but peek in the comments for some sock pattern suggestions.

More weasley Christmases! MA finished her weasley in time and her little one looks great in it. Co-hostess with the mostest, Jenn finished hers too and SHE looks great in it! And get this, Tania knit a second weasley in the THREE days before Christmas! Hope we get to see some pics of her weasleys on her new blog (hint, hint). And there's even more super cute mini-weasley ornaments to see, this time from Stacey. You gals rock! Check out Tami's gorgeous weasley almost done. And poor Orli's had a little catastrophe with her weasley, but is back on track now.

Hey, sock knitters not in the sockapalooza, Memoija is hosting a fabbo long sock knitalong you might be interested in. And for beginners who weren't quite up to knitting socks for someone else just yet, I've heard talk of a "learn to knit socks"-along at Karmicknits. Check there later this week for details!

And in other knitalong news, I may just have to sign up for this knitalong. Can. Not. Resist.

A blue bliss is underway!

I'd almost forgotten that I had these two balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky in the stash. I had originally planned to make a crocheted scarf with them, but that was before my orange bliss scarf. When I remembered them, I had to pull them out and make a blue version. Why didn't I think to make a blue bliss earlier? Especially considering that all of my hats and gloves are blue? Well, apparently I already made a ribbed blue scarf to match my blue hat. What should I do with that? No problem!

I'll turn it into mittens (and give that gifted mittens pattern that everyone's crazy for a try).

One left. I should be done in time for the next snow!

This is what my boys yell from the backseat when the notoriously crazy Massachusetts drivers start acting up on the road. The boys are doing an imitation of Plankton from Spongebob Squarepants who is a very angry little marine creature, constantly thwarted in his attempts to rule the world by his own size: "I have come to realize... I can deny it no longer! I am small." So the boys put their hands over their mouths like a megaphone and say "Attention! People of bikini bottom! You are blocking our car!"

Do I have your attention now?

Sockapalooz-ers, I will start sending out sock pals this weekend. Woohoo!

And sockapalooz-er wannabes, I'm reopening the sign up. Right now! With Christine taking over the beginners group, I've got fewer names to deal with here and am not feeling quite as overwhelmed as I had feared. So be quick and leave a comment to this post and join before I come to my senses. I'm game for about 25-30 more participants. BUT you have to super-dooper promise with a cherry on top to make fabulous socks that your pal will love and not leave him/her in the lurch. Attention! People! Repeat after me: "I super-dooper promise...."

Update: Sign up for the sockapalooza is now officially closed. But if this winter tour goes well, there's good chances for a summer tour!

Okay, we now return you to your regular knit-blogging.

For those of you who imagine that with twin toilet-training toddler boys I get some chance to knit during the daylight hours, here's a picture of what I did yesterday.

I spent over an hour constructing this. Well, it's slow going when someone's playing on it while it's still in progress! (A little like the Big Dig actually.) When I finally added the final flourish, the little overpass for cars to drive over the train tracks and under the bridge, the boys got so excited that they started dismantling the rest of the track. "We're done with this part." Nooooo!

A sneak peek at a design in progress. My Magknits project in the Calmer yarn I received a couple of weeks ago. Stay tuned this month for more peeks!

My knitbuddy and neighbor, Shannon is doing a little volunteer knitting for the charity organization Graceful Stitches. She received her kit, knitted the fun kids poncho, and then turned the pattern page to find crochet instructions for the matching hat. Knowing that I pretend to know how to crochet, she brought the pattern and remaining yarn over to me.

oh, how I like the look of crochet rounds

This little poofy beret hat is so adorable. The openwork is very pretty, especially in this duo-tone yarn. Unfortunately, I didn't have a picture of what the pattern was supposed to look like while I was working on it and so as the hat got bigger and bigger, I started to get worried. But I checked all my stitches and my numbers, so I knew I was following directions correctly. Finally came the last two decrease rounds and the thing went from being much too big for me to not even fitting on my head anymore. Voila!

why do the little boys always get the long lashes?

Still to come, the giant pompon for the top!

I took the boys to IKEA in New Haven again this week. This time just me and the boys and not for any particular reason. Just for fun, 'cause what else are you going to do with two boys who are going crazy being shut in the house all day, but are still too sniffly and coughy to hang out with other kids? Their favorite thing at IKEA: the cinnamon buns!

They were so excited to get to the snack at the end that they actually chanted "Go! Go! Go!" through the last half of the downstairs marketplace.

Their favorite part of the whole trip though was after the IKEA, when we went to McDonalds for dinner on the way back home. Their happy meals included the perfect toy for two boys trapped in the back seat on a long car ride: giant blow-up clubs to beat each other with.

get mommy!

So here's what you're thinking: "I wish she'd just get back to the knitting!" I'm thinking the same thing. Rest assured, whenever I do get time to do some knitting around here (ie - when I'm done with the Sockapalooza organizing), I'll let you know about it for sure. Until then you'll have to settle for more Pythons "knitting".

Graham Chapman couldn't knit either

What ever happend to pop, you might ask. Well, I did all the seaming, knit the neck edging, tried it on and then stopped. It's practically done (the two front flaps still need to be joined with the button and a small ribbed band), but I'm just not sure how happy I am with the little peek-a-boo opening. I have moments when I try it on and think that it looks really good. And then there are times that I've slipped it on and thought, no way, I should rip it and and make up a new neckline enitrely.

What do you think?

Weasley news:

Finally a picture of Peggy's little one in his weasley sweater! And a picture of Eklectika's TWO weasleys together - weasleys from A to Z! Also Leigh reports that she's finished hers and it was a huge hit, inciting some peer rivalry. Oh my!

Elsewhere, Orli finised the front of her weasley and Amy Lu is working on sleeves.

Sockapalooza news:

All non-beginners who sent their info to me should have received their sockapalooza sock pals by now. Remember, don't tell your sock pal who you are. Just find the perfect yarn and pattern for them, knit, knit, knit and send your socks off around March 15 with a note revealing who you are. We can all be surprised together!

Leftovers:

I heard from Elizabeth that she finished a version of my leftovers vest. Stripes are good, mmmm'kay.

And bookish girl, Wendy finished a Banff and is starting some sweat pants! I love to see old knitalong projects being made by others. It brings back fun memories of making my own projects. I had to pull out Banff and the sweatpants already this week and wear them!

Coming soon:

Last January we ripped and last February was for finishing. This year I'm declaring February to be for fixing. I've got a few projects, like pop that need some minor tweaking and plenty of others that need major overhauls.

Just so I don't chicken out with pop, I took her apart last night. Here's the front back on the needles again and ready for reknitting.

So this February, there'll be some ripping, some reknitting, reclaiming of yarn and rethinking of projects. Who else is ready to play knitting doctor?

Another peek at my Magknits design, now getting some color.

My blue mittens are complete. The gifted mittens pattern was very well-written and lots of fun to do, but I did make a few changes. I made the cuff like an inch and a half longer - I like long cuffs! I picked up stitches and did a three-needle bind off to seam up the thumb instead of doing the crochet seam. And next time, I'd just snip the yarn and use a regular mattress stitch (I'm not a fan of an exposed seam). I also reversed the shapings on the top of the mittens. Again just personal preference. I like right-leaning decreases on the right and left-leaning on the left. Just me! And finally, I finished off the top with kitchener stitch like at the end of a sock.

It's a great straight-forward pattern for fiddling with. And boy, did I like knitting the mittens flat! It made them go soooo fast. But (my only real issue with this pattern) a seam inside a bulky-gauged mitten is annoying. I've got to look into another seaming method that doesn't leave a half-stitch seam allowance inside. There's a way, I'm sure! Despite the silly seam, they fit great and are fun to wear.

And they match my blue hat (that I made two years ago) perfectly! This is no surprise as they are both done in Phildar Polaire, a wonderfully warm and soft wool/acrylic blend. I'm glad I decided to rip out the blue scarf I had made with my extra Polaire and turn it into the mittens. I'm thinking it's better that the hat and mittens are in the blend yarn and the new scarf is in the to-die-for cashmerino superchunky. I was briefly tempted to buy more of the cashmerino for the mittens (that is what the pattern calls for) and even more for a matching hat, but then I thought hats and mittens are really like the worker bees of the winter set. They're exposed to all the harsh elements and have to be really warm and resiliant. They're about the cold. A scarf is more about comfort and style. It's about me!

Uh, yeah, the scarf's not done yet. I'm saving it for a knit-while-the-boys-are-playing-quitely moment. Haven't had any of those in a while. But I have been wearing the hat and mittens anyway. I even wore them this morning to the big semi-annual sale at Wild & Wooly in Lexington (at last year's sale I picked up the yarn that became the boys' weasley sweaters). As always I was there when they opened at 7am! Pics of the loot to come tomorrow....

I have to admit I've been in a bit of a slump. I've been so overwhelmed with the sockapalooza organization and exhausted from the boys that I haven't had much knitting time recently. Although I cleared out my project basket during the holidays, leaving me only with the final touches on pop, I'm now reknittng it instead of wearing it. And indecision and general lack of energy have kept me from getting too psyched about starting a new project. Wild & Wooly's semi-annual sale to the rescue!

Being there at 7am didn't really help with my fatigue, but it's such a fun adventure going every year that I really do get a charge out of it. Here's what I'm excited about:

Linie 157 Tessa yarn in baby blue for this sweater from the new Vogue Knitting.

Nature Spun from Brown Sheep in many colors. I was thinking maybe Pippi Kneestockings from Stitch n Bitch.

Fellow Knitsmiths, Shannon and Colleen were also there. Go check out the exciting stuff they found!

I finally finished my blue bliss scarf and she's just so lovely. This one seems even softer than orange bliss did. Here's the whole winter blue set.

Since blue bliss is so lovely, I decided to try my hand at redoing the seam on those blue mittens. It was a beautiful, invisible seam, but a bit bulky, so I figured it was worth a try. I tried out the "knitted stitch" seam from Montse Stanley's Knitter's Handbook. It's done like duplicate stitch and creates a column of new stitches joining the edges. It was definitely what I was looking for but I still liked the look of the mattress stitch better. So back it went. A half stitch seam allowance, as written, will be good enough for me.

Did I mention that my blue bliss scarf is soooooo lovely?

My new Tessa yarn knits up beautifully. And I'm on gauge - knitting continental, baby!* I'm calling this sweater January, cause I like the name and I'm gonna cheat and start this sweater this month (even though I really should be concentrating on my magknits design). But I just can't wait to start!

One hitch though, the yarn isn't as soft as I'd hoped it would be. I'm not overly sensitive to wool, but with a deep neckline, this sweater should really be worn without other layers underneath and that means the shawl collar will be all over my neck. So it can't be too scratchy. I've washed my swatch and given it a little downy treatment to see if it'll soften up enough. Fingers crossed!

* - Bayyybee, as in Austin Powers, not that annoying baby that half the Amazing Race teams are constantly calling each other - ugh, that makes me want to hurl.

More color! Now this is getting fun.

weasleys

Tania's weasleys! Eklectika's weasleys! Orli's first weasley! Tami's weasley! Four cheers for weasley knitters - hip, hip, hip, hooray! Awesome job, gals.

sockapalooza

Everyone in both groups should now have a pal. I've updated the list of sockers. Check the list to make sure that you're on it and your blog info is correct.

Can you believe that some knitters (like Illanna) are already finished with their socks?! Wow! Please hold on to the socks until March 15 though, so we can all send them off around the same time. And those of you getting started, share your progress with us or direct us to your blog for updates by leaving a comment here to each week's "tuesday is knitalong day" post. 150 people is a lot to keep track of, so it'll be better if you pop by here and let us know that there's progress to see. Thanks! I can't wait to see all the socks being knitted out there.

february is for fixing

Got a few knits gone wrong? Need to rip? Need to reknit? Fall in love with those projects again this February by putting them back on the needles and putting them right. It's a February fix-a-thon for inspiration and commiseration!

A couple of things from the comments yesterday that deserve repeating here.

First, sockapalooza sockers, Jenny is having a little contest over at her blog and the prize is.... SOCK YARN. Go now!

Second, weasley-alongers, Laurie wrote: "So there I was on a plane from Denver to Boston. We upgraded to 1st class with miles, since it is so hard to get a free ticket. In row #1, was a man, probably mid-30s, alone with a young child, probably about 18 mos old, blonde. WEARING A WEASLEY. Who was it?" Any chance the knitter of the weasley Laurie spotted was one of us??

Okay, now on to Wednesday.

Here they are, my dirty little secrets: the projects I've fallen out of love with.

Ready for fixin':

Pop. But we knew that already.

Knitting my gifted mittens I asked myself whatever happened to those big plaid mittens I made last year. They're still in the closet. Not being worn. I love that they're so big and mitten-y. They'd be perfect for walking to work or standing around outside, but with two toddlers I've got to use my hands a lot, even when they're cold. And I have to admit that my big, fun, floppy mittens are just too big to allow me to do things like buckle the boys up in car seats. So I'm kinda thinking I should take these apart and knit them smaller (I'll add new sizing to the pattern). Looking at the mittens I remember how much I loved the construction of them (following Ann Budd's mittens in her Handy Book of Patterns). I actually really liked this pattern much more than the gifted mittens, but I'm not sure I can fight the urge to knit them flat.

So add plaid mittens.

As I was pulling out the Plaid mittens, I caught a glimpse of my brushed alpaca hat. It's so soft and fluffy, but also big, and too round looking on my head. And I remember that I had to buy a second ball to finish it but only used a few meters from it. So I've got lots of this yarn left. Wouldn't a big, beret-style hat be better?

Add brushed alpaca hat.

Now, what else do I have that I'm not wearing? Are there some other knits suffering from neglect?

Well there is Klaralund. I knit it nice and loose because I wanted it to drape a lot and it sure does. But then I saw Terri's and liked the more fitted look. And now I think I want to do away with all that garter stitch and make one like Laura's. It knit up so fast, I think I can deal with ripping and totally reknitting this one.

Add Klaralund.

Oh yeah, add Rosebud too. I've got some tinkering to do with the sleeve length.

Ready to rip:

Brown butter - Hubby never wore it and says he never will (not a vest man after all). And hey, I could use that yarn. For something.

Greensleeves - The yarn is too stiff and heavy for the pattern. Plus, I've found a very similar pattern that's more fitted and would be more flattering. And I have the perfect yarn for it!

And now for the really hard one....

Elizabeth - Never worn it, never will. It's too dressy and toooooo white. I have absolutely no idea what to do with the yarn, but it's depressing me in elizabeth.

Oh my, February's fixing frenzy is going to be full.

January is underway! After the Downy treatment, my swatch was considerably softer, so I jumped right in. I'm enjoying doing some continental knitting again. And the blue just makes me smile.

Just to balance out the sh*t list.

First I gotta mention banff and sooty mango, my two favoritest sweaters of all, which by the way were both results of major reknitting (I cut the ribbing off of sooty mango and reknit it and banff was knit out of the yarn from a failed cardigan!).

Next, these socks, one of the first pairs I ever knit. The recipient recently hinted that she would love a couple more pairs just like them. When they ask for more, it's definitely a hit!

Finally, there's nothing like adorable babies to restore your faith in your knits.

Happy baby in daisy sweater.

Happy baby in mya sweater.

And it's not technically a KNIT hit, but I get a kick out of this recently finished (and now pompon-ed) crocheted beret that I made for charity. B. let me take his picture wearing it, but made me promise that he could see the picture when it was done. When he looked at the picture, he immediately smiled and said, "hey look, it's my blankie!" See the little bit of it in the corner?

We have a winner! The biggest knit hits of all have got to be my very first projects, the baby blankies for my boys.

I love knitting.

please pardon the blurry, 2:00 am photography

Magknit overload. Too. . . much. . . to. . . do.

I'm drowning in design duty here! Sorry if I've been a bit missing-in-action in comments here and elsewhere. I've got about 100 updates on Bloglines waiting for me. Aaaack! I appreciate you all still stopping by even though I haven't been able to go out visting in the blog ring recently.

...to do something right, and not have to knit every project twice!

Here's my progress on my january sweater. I'm two balls in and I don't like it. I don't like how the pattern decreases look in this yarn. My swatch seems not so soft enough anymore. And I'm not getting even tension with my left hand - it looks pretty good, but it's growing and is now unacceptably large. I gave myself several inches to solve/get over any or all of these problems and I just can't. So out it goes. I think this yarn is much better suited to this sweater, which also has a slightly smaller gauge that will allow me to knit it with my right hand. And it still has an exciting low neckline, but because it's so low, I'll have to wear something underneath it, thus eliminating any worries about the wool's scratchiness.

The january sweater may be a flop so far, but the january snowstorm is coming along just fine, thank you very much.

uhhh, let's stay inside

note: we actually have steps leading up to our door!

One step forward, two steps back. The joys of designing.

Weasley knitters!

Amy Lu finished her weasley and it's beautiful. And Leigh has done an amazing job on the "H" of her second weasley.

Anyone finished with their Rowan pattern and interested in selling it, there are a few weasely-wannabe's who would LOVE to buy the pattern from you. Check out who's interested in the comments to this wednesday morning knitalong post.

Sockapaloozers!

Helene has finished the most gorgeous socks for her sock pal. Wow! Helene also suggests sending a few scrap pieces of the yarn you used for the socks to your sock pal in case they need to do any repairs later. Great idea, Helene.

You gotta see the special little blog Grauwal has made just for her sockapalooza sock progress. And what incredible socks she's making! She recommended the Knitting Zone to me as a good online source for all kinds of sock yarns. I still have to get some yarn for my sock pal, so meet you over there!

Other updates I've gotten: Elspeth reports that she has one sock finished, Sneak a peek at Kristel's beautiful sock in progress. It's blue!

And I love, love, love Christine's Good 'n Plenty socks. Christine is heading up the beginner's group, so don't forget to keep stopping by her site for tips on sock knitting. By the way, I just caught the sock knitting episode of Knitty Gritty on DiY yesterday. They've got some good info for beginners on their site, including pictures and a basic sock pattern, so follow the link and check it out.

Can I just say how much I am enjoying sending your quesitons on to your sock pals? It's really nice knowing that so many of you are out there trying to make something that your sock pal will really love. You rock! If you want to be more than a sock buddy to your sock pal, Timothy suggests getting an anonymous email account through yahoo or hotmail (like sockbuddy@hotmail.com) and visiting your sock pal's website to say hi or to write them if you have additional questions. I know lots of people have done this in the secret pals program and it's lots of fun.

Remember, send me your updates and post them here in the comments. I wanna hear how you're doing!

February Fixers!

Take a look at that list of people who will be ripping and reworking knits next month! Now, that's inspirational. We've even got Bonne Marie, who's teaches us every day how to "boss our knits around"! You know, there's at least three Klaralund's biting the dust and even a crochet project that's joining the fixing fray. Neato!

I don't usually do these memes but since one of my favorite knitbuds, Jackie, tagged me I guess I gotta do it.

1. Total amount of music files on your computer:

Zero. Nada. Zilch. And no I don't own an iPod or MP3 player. I just don't listen to music much. I used to have a huge cassette collection when I was in college (it was full of Depeche Mode and the like), but I sold most of it when I moved to Germany. This is a sampling of what's left. And now the boys use my cassette deck as a pretend oven, stuffing toys in the cassette slots to "cook". See!

Now if you asked me the total number of catchy kids show songs in my head, I'd say about 50, including "I love my boots", "Ski patrol to the rescue", "Welcome to Lazy Town", "Ladybugs Picnic", "Give us back our treasure!", and "What's the name of that song?". (Bonus points to anyone who can identify all those references!)

2. The last CD you bought was:

I used to buy music without even hearing it. I would buy new things from the labels that I liked. I'd just pick up anything that looked cool from Sire records, for example. I found out about bands like The The and the Wild Swans that way and introduced their stuff to all my friends. But that was back in like 1990. When I was much cooler.

The last CD I bought was probably Tracy Chapman's first album, which I ordered online around 2001. Yes, that was the last time I bought a CD! I did ask hubby for a CD this Christmas, though. Remember? Oh yeah, I'm definitely not cool anymore.

3. What is the last song you listened to before reading this message:

Whatever was on the pop radio station the last time I was driving in the car. That's really when I do my music listening. I have no idea what it was but here's a few clues to my radio listening behavior.

Switch station immediately = any song by Elton John, Phil Collins or U2.

Check other stations to see if any favorite songs are on, if not come back = any song by a hip new band with some wacky name like Matchbox 20 or Third Eye Blind, Foo Fighters or Goo Goo Dolls. I can't tell any of them apart.

Stop here and sing along = oh, you know, stuff by Avril Levigne, Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway", Jessica Simpson's "With You", one of those Five for Fighting dirges, something John Mayer-ish. (I can't sing, by the way.)

4. Write down 5 songs you listen to often or that mean a lot to you:

These are songs that at one time I really loved and that, if they ever came on the radio, I'd sit in the car in the parking lot to listen to the end of them.

"I'm a Believer" by the Monkees (I used to LOVE watching the Monkees in reruns on tv. I remember being soooo excited one day when I discovered that my grandparents actually owned a Monkees album and I could listen to the songs whenever I wanted. I still have that album. Somewhere. No turntable though.)

"Alison" by Elvis Costello (For obvious reasons.)

"Reunion" by Erasure (Heck, anything from Erasure's first seven or so albums.)

"God Will" by Lyle Lovett

"Give Me One Reason" by Tracy Chapman

Note, I'm leaving out whole phases of my muscial history, like my Howard Jones phase (the keyboards! the hair! the lyrics: "whoa, whoa, whohohoh, whoa, whoa, whohohoh"!), my Billy Joel phase (I lived on Long Island - it's like a law there), and my Harry Connick Jr. phase (up until he got married and started starrring in crappy movies opposite Sandra Bullock).

5. Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?

Oh man, do I really have to pass it on? I'm so not a meme person. Okay, first three commenters consider yourself tagged.

(Pssst.... don't tell anyone, but that was kinda fun!)

Why, it's my boys, who gave up afternoon naps at least a year ago, passed out on the sofa in the middle of the day! Must have been all the doughnut hockey. As you can see, I wasted no time pulling out the needles and made good use of the quiet moment to work on my magknit design.

January is underway again.

love the ribbing in this yarn

I know it's not looking too different from the original january sweater - the two sweater backs weren't really that different, see! - but the significant improvement is that this one is likely to fit. Now that I'm back on track, I can rip out my first attempt. A little warm up for next month's fix-it-a-thon.

If you are trying to sqeeze in a couple of minutes of knitting while hubby and the boys are doing the grocery shopping, do not watch Cash in the Attic. Counting shoulder bind offs and listening to an auctioneer at the same time does not work!

(I'm sneaking in some daytime knitting today because we're going out tonight, sans kids, for our anniversary! The last time we went out alone was while we were on vacation in September and before that to see Harry Potter on opening night in June. We're averaging about one night out every quarter year. Oh my.)

Got sleeves?

In yet another warm-up to the february fixing, I pulled out pop and ripped back the front to get ready to try my hand at inventing a better neckline.

First I've decided to lengthen each piece by about an inch. The sweater is actually the perfect size, but it tends to ride up, both body and sleeves, when I wear it, so since I'm ripping, why not add the extra inch that will keep me from having to tug on the bottom and the cuffs? I have to say that I've actually worn this sweater around the house quite a bit (when I was trying to decide if I wanted to rework it or not), and I really liked it. I think it could be a sweater I'll wear a lot. But first I gotta get that neck right! Maybe something more squared like in the original pattern that inspired my pop stripes? Maybe another split neck like my january sweater in progress?

Frankly, I can't believe that I'm still working on this sweater!