Wee one made her first trip new york city to see grandma!

That's wee in front of Washington Square Park (hey, give me a break, it's hard to get baby and archway in the same picture while holding baby in a bjorn!). Yes, we went straight downtown to visit purl, where I didn't even look at the yarn. I know, I know, but this visit I decided to go easy on the yarn and instead went to purl patchwork to pick out some pretty fabrics to sew some simple dresses for baby L. I'm not very skilled with the sewing machine, but if there's ever going to be a time when I can make clothes for wee one it's now, when a basic little romper will look so cute on her.

I did do some yarn shopping, of course. On Sunday we stopped by Brooklyn General, where we met up with former knitsmith and now nyc's subway knitter. (Colleen's in town only a few weeks and she's already led me to the coolest yarn shop around!)

Brooklyn General (see the sign under the Frank's sign?) was great! It's a huge space with beautiful old-fashioned wood display cases on the walls (very general store-y), filled with gorgeous, gorgeous yarns in every color (really, Debbie Bliss, Rowan, Morehouse Merino, Tess, Alchemy, Savannah, Elspeth Lavold... and each one in more colors than I've ever seen in one store!). They also have retro vintage and hip modern fabrics and neat little handmade items for sale. It's just like a crafter's general store with enough fabulous yarn and fabric to keep your hands busy for a long time, all the necessary notions for sewing and knitting, and all in a very relaxed and friendly neighborhood atmosphere.

I bought some rowan denim for a denim pinafore for wee one. I made one for a friend's baby a couple of years ago and hear that it is still in good shape and still wearable as a top. Two years for a kid's knitted garment?! Baby L needs one of these!

And right at the end of the same street as Brooklyn General is the coolest little coffee shop cafe ever, the coffee den. It's waaaaay kid-friendly and the whole back of the store looks like some ultra-funky retro living room. There's even an old tv with a fake fireplace log in it. Hilarous! And awesome grilled cheese, too!

Then it was back to Amtrak for us. The train rides were a little trying (mostly because wee one insists on rolling over now wherever she is, even if it's on my lap in a narrow seat), but we made it home happy, healthy, and with some really cool loot.

The finished dolly bag is living up to its name by holding the dolly doll I made for wee one back in October. It's exactly the right size to hold her. So it's official, the purse will go to wee one for holding her little girl things.

I enjoyed this project so much more than I ever thought I would. I'm thinking of making some more dolly bags for friends' little girls. It would make a sweet present for a toddler (and be much less time and yarn intensive than a sweater!). It could also easily be sized up to make an adult purse. I think one more repeat of the pattern across and up would be enough to make it usable.

There is one change I would make to the pattern though. I don't like how the diamond borders and the cables actually touch for four rows where the diamonds are the widest.

I would definitely cast on 4 extra stitches to each side and place them as extra purl stitches between the diamond and the cables. The diamonds and cables could remain the same size, but when the diamonds are at their widest, there would still be one purl stitch separating each one from the cables on either side. It might be that the addition of these four stitches on each side would mean that the whole bag would take more than two balls of handknit dk and that's why they aren't there in the pattern. I had some extra yarn, but quite possibly not enough for this adjustment. It's just a little detail that bothers me as a knitter/designer and generally uptight detail person. The bag knit according to the pattern and with the included yarn really is super cute even without my change. Perfect for all the little dolls in your life!

Remember how all my crafty friends made dozens of booties for wee one? Well look at what wee one has now...

shoes from kaya's kloset!

These are the cutest little robeez-style shoes that Johanna has just starting making. She gave me this last pair for my birthday (yesterday!) and they are my favorites of all.

She does custom orders too, so with the fab fabric I brought back from my NYC weekend to make baby dresses, wee one can have matching shoes. Can you stand it?!

Apropos of nothing, the boys decided that I need to knit them stuffed animals. I have no idea how they came up with the idea, but suddenly they were giving me details of how the animals should look as if it were something we'd been planning forever.

S wants a tiger and B wants a bee. Interesting choices, no? I've hunted through my kiddy knitting books and found a bug pattern (from Jess Hutchison's out-of-print Unusual Toys booklet) that'll do for the bee. Now that we have pattern, B keeps saying "can we go to the yarn store?" And I rub my hands together like Mr. Burns from the Simpsons and say, "yeeeees, exxxxcellent."

The tiger pattern is proving harder to find. Anyone have any suggestions for something cute and fun, not too literal, not too complicated?

Don't worry that baby L will be left out of the zoo pals fun. For my birthday, Dani gifted me with some super soft alpaca to make wee one the bunny from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. Love those little pink ears!

Meanwhile, I treated myself to a little funny animal pattern book for my birthday. I was looking for books for the boys for their birthday and just happened to find myself in the craft section - heh, heh. Once I saw this book I couldn't resist!

Even if it weren't full of crochet amigurumi, which I simply adore, the title alone would have sold me. I mean, Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful - how can you put that back on the shelf?!

And so I begin to build a zoo: a bee, a tiger, a bunny, and maybe even mr. funky the monkey someday. Next, I'll be making an ark!

I drove up to New Hampshire this weekend for a little book signing at a local Barnes & Noble store. Baby L and I sat in on a kids' knitting group actually. I love that lots of kids are knitting these days. It's so cool that it's often they who teach their parents to knit. And I am very glad to hear that my book contains some things that a group of tween knitters could really make and get excited about making.

This coming Sunday I'll be at Webs in Northampton, MA from 1pm - 3pm for a special Harry Potter knitting celebration (scroll down for a small blurb about the event) and book signing. I am so excited about it. Webs! Webs! Webs! Webs! It's like a chant in my head. Many of the Knitsmiths are coming too and I hope to see lots of you there. If you haven't ever visited Webs before, you gotta come see ALLLLL the yarn! Come, shop, knit, and talk movie 5 and book 7 with me.

I won't be going to Minnesota for any book events, but man, have I gotten a lot of requests from there. Knitting must be a big deal in Minnesota! Not only have I had more contact with journalists and book stores in Minnesota than here locally, but also, every time I have a little yarn contest or giveway, I swear at least half the items go to Minnesota! A few weeks ago, I was interviewed for an article in the Twin Cities' Pioneer Press. The journalist also runs her own potter blog, Big Harry Deal. Come to think of it, Harry Potter must also be a big deal in Minnesota. More recently, I was interviewed by another journalist for an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune and she also has her own hp blog, The Potter Blotter. (Great name!!) So what is it about Minnesota? Is it as cool as it seems??

Alright, I know you all are wondering what the boys do when mommy's off knitting and book signing. They do this with daddy. All the way to the top!

This is how I pack up the stroller to go anywhere these days. Always the knitting pouch with me. Always with my pal's sock in it, ready to knit if wee one nods off for a wee nap.

I hope your sockapalooza socks are on the go too, because there's only four weeks left! (I'm adding a few more days to the mailing deadline, just to put it on a Tuesday - sort of the unofficial official sockapalooza day. So mailing anytime between August 2nd and August 7th is good.) We've got 150 finished paloozas so far. That's about 15%. Not too bad, but let's see if we can get it up to 50% pretty soon. That'd make me (and everyone else, I imagine) feel muuuuch better.

We had a lot of finishers in June! Check out all the fnishers on the big page. Click on "random finished socker" to jump to a page of someone who is done. And remember when you finish to update your info in the database and post to the pligg so we all know to go look!

Drumroll please.... The winner of the June contest is Elise of hoopskirt! Congratulations! I'll send your info to Allison at Simply Socks and she'll send out your package of socky goodness sometime this month!

So how are my socks on the go going? Well, I finished my first pair of sockapalooza socks last month, of course, and am just past the heel on sock number one of pair number two. (Funny, I remember a saying a similar sentence to wee one yesterday when I had to change her in the Starbucks bathroom into outfit number two because she'd covered outfit number one with number two!)

I'm liking them more and more. The lace pattern is sweet and, I'm noticing now, flatter than the embossed leaves. I suspect that because there's less texture these may actually be more flattering for the large-ankled among us (like myself) to wear. The heel flap certainly did come out nicely. It's a standard slip 1, knit 1 flap but somehow this Gems fingering weight really shows it off well. Pretty, pretty.

Get bee-u-tiful little fabrics from purl patchwork and quilter's way.

Get the perfect pattern (in this case, perfect means embarrassingly simple).

Start cutting.

I finished the first waving lace sock! Whew, that was a lot of stitches. I'm not used to these tiny needles. I'm such a small needle wimp! But I really want to get these done in time, since these are actually socks for a pal who didn't get any in the last round and I don't want them to be late this time.

So last night, I really buckled down and finished the foot.

Ooooh, I like that lace. Here it is a little opened up with the help of one of the boys' whee-lo toys.

Off to start sock number two. I hope to make some real progress on it on the way to Webs this Sunday. See ya there - bring your socks!

I finally got out to see the Order of the Phoenix last night!

This was supposed to be a picture of the poster at the theater, but I think it better captures my excitement than the actual poster. Woo hoo! I wasn't disappointed.

**Warning, I'm going to talk about the movie, so if you don't want to hear, skip this paragraph!** Order of the Phoenix was very good - and that's saying something, since I really haaated book 5. Okay, maybe hated is a little strong, but I didn't like Harry in it, certainly didn't like Dumbledore in it and then there were the obvious jerks in the book like Fudge, Umbridge, Bellatrix.... But I really loved the Weasley twins' exit from Hogwarts and was happy to see justice done to it in the film. I was very relieved that Harry's whiny teen outbursts were left out and that the whole Umbridge situation was treated with more humor than horror. Neville was given some good scenes in this one (looove Neville!). And I definitely liked the style of the film and the use of the Prophet to segue between scenes and stories. Overall, I was very pleased with how 5 managed to get all the important things in, still I was left feeling like something was missing. There might have just been too much plot to squeeze into one film to leave much time for anything else, but I didn't get the sense that we really shared what Harry was going through. It was more like we were just sort of being told how he was feeling (by Luna most of the time). I feel like we were more with him in the scenes in the Shrieking Shack and by the Whomping Willow in 3 and through all the Triwizard challenges and at the graveyard in 4. I don't know. Maybe a few more viewings when it comes out on dvd will change my mind.

A few more viewings on dvd will definitely help me better see all the amazing garments they put in there! The costume department did another incredible job with lots of cool new pieces to replicate. There were house vests and cardigans, Umbridge's cropped pink lace sweater, her pink fluffy angora sweater, and her amazing pink houndstooth poncho. We got another peek at Ron's patchwork afghan from the last movie and he's got a new maroon jumper, this one with plaid squares on the front! The Weasley twins were sporting chunky zip collar sweaters with a fun retro/Charlie Brown style zigzag motif and their bright green holiday waistcoats were hilarious! Then there were Mrs. Weasleys' knitted gifts for all of them (you know that the costume department had to have been let loose for that scene!). My favorites were definitely Hermione's Gryffindor striped hoodie (gotta make one of those) and Trelawney's bag. Anyone have plans for knitting these or others already?

And speaking of Harry Potter, listen to my Harry Potter podcast with Guido of It's a Purl, Man and be sure to come to the Potter party at Webs on Sunday (1-3)!

The people at Webs are soooo cool! First, I got to be on their local radio show (which is also online as a podcast). They chat about their lives and their store. It's all very down to earth and fun to listen to. I really enjoyed being a part of their show.

Then, on Sunday, the big day, we had the book signing at the store. They set up a table for me and I put out all my samples from the book.

But that's not all, they had set up a whole potter party table with a Harry Potter cake, Bertie Bott's jelly beans, and "dragon snot" green sherbet punch too! This was like the 9 year-old Harry Potter party I never had!

check out the cake!

They raffled off house color yarn kits and gave away tiny bookscarf kits. There were at least 15 Knitsmiths there (I love you gals!), as well as lots of other Potter (and yarn) enthusiasts!

After chatting with fellow Potter fanatics, I got everything on my yarn list (and more!), including yarn for a baby shrug and baby pants for baby L, yarn for a dolly bag for a friend's daughter, and of course all the yarn for the boys' tiger and lion animals (yes, B has switched from a bee to a lion - he didn't want S getting anything that seemed cooler than what he was getting!). The boys actually greeted me at the door when I got home by yelling, 'did you go to the big yarn store?! did you get the yarn?!' Oh yeah!

We're up to 210 finished sockapalooza knitters! Wow! That's 21% of all 1,000 sockers (with only 3 weeks to go!). Let's try and have a whole bunch of finishers this week, okay? Remember when you are finished to update the database and enter a URL to the specific post or image of your finished socks (don't just enter your main blog addy), so folks can go directly from the big list to your finished socks.

210 finished sockers is still a lot of socks to see though. Get on over to the big list and start clicking on the "random finished socker" link. You are going to see some beauties! In just a couple minutes of clicking, I found these lovelies: pink beaded socks by Beate; pretty lace cuff socks from Rachel M; and perfect pomatomi fabulous Flickers from Ebony.

Clicking back to my own socks, the second pair is slowly coming along, with one repeat finished on sock number two.

And now back to sock surfing and general monkeying around....

Wee one in her Brooklyn General onesie asking me, 'when are you going to make me that denim pinafore, mommy?'

And here she is asleep in her swing cuddling with big brother B's little blankie. Lesson for big brother: if you don't put it away, the baby's going to think it's hers.

Big brother B comes to me and says, 'mom, I'm making a lego contraption and need some yarn'. I think we can manage that....

His little Lego man needed a parachute, so we grabbed some yellow Opal sock yarn to attach him to the tissue parachute. Then Lego man got popped into the contraption, that got hung on some more yarn (dk cotton this time) draped across the room and when the contraption hits a certain point on the line, out he falls through the trap door.

Oh yes, we're all about the yarn here.

Another day, another repeat on the second sock of my pal's waving lace socks. I've been knitting on auto pilot trying to get this sock done before we leave for vacation this weekend. I don't think I'll make it, but I am impressed with the progress I've made just keeping my head down and knitting through the blur.

You see, I've passed that phase where you've learned the lace pattern and don't have to look at the chart. At this point I've completely forgotten the lace pattern and am genuinely shocked each time I look down and find myself still knitting it without incident. I'll suddenly stop and think, where the hell am I, what row is this even? And I got no answer. But my hands keep knitting. It's like when I'm reading some long bedtime story to the boys that I've read to them a thousand times before (like Dr. Seuss' "If I Ran the Circus" or one of those Magic School Bus books). I'll be reading and reading and then it'll occur to me that I have no idea where we are in the book. Did I even read the last pages? Did I just say out loud the crazy sequence of thoughts that were going through my head about what we have planned for the next day, what some idiot driver did ahead of me on the way to the mall earlier and how I can't wait to go downstairs and sneak another piece of birthday cake? But the boys seem riveted to the book so I continue and instantly start daydreaming again.

These days all I'm thinking about while knitting and reading out loud is all the stuff I gotta pack. Packing up three kids for two weeks - yikes! Yes, we're going on a big vaca and I'll be completely offline. Believe me, this was not my idea. The whole vacation was planned by the in-laws to be a relaxing holiday on the beach, so there's no television or computer or internet that I'm aware of. Yikes! That means the end of sockapalooza will run on auto pilot. But you all are making such amazing socks and are doing so great with the pligg and with updating the database that I'm sure things will go great. If you have any questions about the end of sockapalooza, post them here and I'll answer them in one last post before I leave on Saturday.

I've got two super cool sockapalooza announcements to share first though!

1. Fellow palooza, Mad caterpillar, has made some awesome sockapalooza sock labels to wrap up your pal's socks! I was going to make some but since she's already done a much better job than I ever could, I'm happy to just make the announcement.

2. Fellow palooza, Allena, is making sockapalooza project bags! You can order one to send to your pal or to keep for yourself. I got mine!

Note to self: don't forget to pack sockapalooza bag....

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UPDATE: Answers to your sockapalooza questions...

The OFFICIAL END AND SEND DATE is August 7th. You can send your finished socks off anywhere between the 1st and the 7th, depending on how far they have to travel. If you've got an international pal, go ahead and send them out on the 1st. If your pal is in your country, send around the 7th. They aren't supposed to arrive by the 7th, but be sent on that date. That way socks will start arriving on the 8th, 9th, 10th....

Be sure to INCLUDE A POSTCARD WITH YOUR NAME on it to reveal yourself to your pal. Find a postcard from your area so your pal can see where the socks have come from. You can put other gifties in the package, but it's not required. And you might want to include your email address so they can write back and say thanks!

When you finish knitting, UPDATE THE DATABASE. UPDATE AGAIN when you send your socks to your pal. And UPDATE IT AGAIN when you receive your socks from the pal knitting for you. That's three updates I need from you. They all work the same way: go to the database, click on update info, use the link that will be sent to your email and then click on the appropriate button.

USE THE PLIGG to link to posts about your finished socks and raves about the socks you receive.

I'll be back to send my socks off in time and watch all of the socks arrive, so I'll get to see the best part. Now to those of you still knitting, get back to it! :)

All ready for the big book release! I've got my Harry glasses, a Gryffindor beret from my book, and a Marauder's Map shirt I made with some iron-on paper (got the idea from one of the fabulous women at Webs this weekend). I'm listening to Harry and the Potters and am excited to stand in line to get book 7. Then it's out of the country I go, far far away from the internet and the television and the hints and the spoilers. I want to pick up my book and disappear...

No mischief, please. I know there are some "reveals" out in internet-land already and I don't want to see any of them. Thanks!

Like many others, I'm offline, reading my Harry Potter book. I'll just be doing it in a different country far, far away from the internet and for a couple of weeks.

the contents of my 'carry on'

The Potter Party in Harvard Square was AWESOME! First there were the Hungarian Horntails, three little kids who screamed (really screamed) things like "kick Voldemort's butt!" and "Crabbe and Goyle are stupid beaters" into the microphone. Between songs they'd argue about what song was next and the oldest boy (the one with the guitar) would tell the others to stand away from him. It was hilarious, albeit very hard on the ears.

Then came the real punks, Draco and the Malfoys: "Draco, year nineteen and Draco, year fifteen" they said.

Okay, they totally rocked! Their lyrics were so funny - "It's time to party like you're evil! It's time to freak out some Muggles!" -- so Draco -- "My father is rich and your father is dead." -- so meeeeaaaan - "I love my mom. I love my dad too. We all love Lord Voldemort. And we love to hate you." You've got to go to their site and listen to some of their songs. Buy a CD or two. They are great!

Finally, the ones we all wanted to see, our hometown HP rockers, Harry and the Potters!

You may have heard their music before and thought that they're not the best band ever, but they were so fun! They really got everyone psyched. "Are you ready to rock?! Are you ready to read?! Are you ready to defeat evil by reading?!" They had us pledge not to spoil the book for all the children who are so excited about it and then they rocked! We sang together about saving Ginny and playing Wizard Chess, what Draco Malfoy's problem is, and how awesome this book is!

Then it was time to head to the Harvard Book Store to get said awesome book. They sorted us by alphabet; I was in Charms.

At midnight, the clock chimed twelve times and we all cheered! By 12:18, I had my book! On my way home from the Square, I drove down a deserted, dark street and passed a young guy riding a big upright bike with a giant basket very reminiscent of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, but instead of a doggie, he had the book in his basket. Awesome. Harry Potter is cool.

See ya in a couple weeks! Enjoy the book, enjoy finishing your sockapalooza socks, enjoy this time.

UPDATE: And now I can finally show you some vacation photos....

First, the beach. That's why we came (the in-laws planned the beach vacation). The boys had never been to a beach before and they were not disappointed. They would sit by the water and let the waves crash around them and yell, "this is so fun this is so fun this is so fun!"

Even wee one got to enjoy some beach time.

Our first outing beyond the beach was to Pisa.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa really is that leany! I was so amazed by it. Usually you visit a city, it has interesting sites, you take pictures, but I just couldn't stop taking pictures of this tower. It is sooo cool!

We waited in line and climbed up the tower. Scaaaaaary! It's no wonder that kids under 8 aren't even allowed to go up and from 8 to 12, they have to be held on your hand the whole time. Climbing up the stairs was totally weird because when you got to the side where the lean was going in your direction, suddenly the uphill climb seamed easy, and then on the other side, it was soooo hard to go up each step. And in the middle, you were thrown to one side of the narrow staircase. "Keep to the right," as if you could do anything else! And then on the top, it was waaaay open. A little railing with three horizontal bars and that was it. And the level below it was even scarier. It wasn't flat, but consisted only of circular steps around the tower and you had to walk along the top step, which was higher than the railing, to get the the staircase for the next level. Yikes! But cool. Way cool.

The kids loved the tower too. Here's B donig the the obligatory pushing-over-the-tower pic. When you walk around the square, you see people posing for these pictures everywhere. It's so funny!

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Hi from Italy! Just checking in very quickly from an internet cafe in Pisa and I see that with only one week left in sockapalooza 4, only one third of you are done knitting. Come on everyone, don't let your pals down. Knit, knit, knit!

I'm working on my second pal's socks at the beach and late at night (jetlag's great for late night knitting sessions!). They'll be done on time. I hope yours will be too.

See ya next week (with photos)!

(PS - No, I am not done with the book yet. So, keep quiet a little longer, kay? Oh and KNIT!)

UPDATE: Finally I can show you some vacation photos...

I've always wanted to visit Florence. The sites were amazing, but it was very hot and extremely overcrowded. There was no chance of actually going into any of the museums or larger churches. Too many people. And there was no place to catch a break from the heat. The main historic center is all concrete and stone with no shade or green spaces at all. This made visiting Florence a little disappointing. But you can't argue with the beauty of a piazza like this.

Yup, that's David there near the end (well, a copy Michelangelo made for the square - the original was in a building full of tourists and therefore impossible to see).

The cathedral is so incredibly big, you couldn't possibly ever get one good picture of it, so I opted for this shot with wee one. She was so good on the trip, sleeping through the hottest part of the day in the stroller while we walked through the narrow streets of Florence.

Our favorite site in Florence was this church, Santa Croce. The burial place of a staggering number of important names, like Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli, it also houses amazing frescoes and stone works.

After the churches closed and the city emptied out a bit, we were able to enjoy the old streets and main squares much more and actually catch a glimpse of a few things we hadn't been able to even approach before, like Ghiberti's stunning Gates of Paradise.

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Greetings from Florence! We're nearing the close of our vacation and still have yet to see a cloud in the sky. I've finished book 7 (could have lived without the last chapter, but I really liked the last two sentences!) and am knitting away on the boys' tiger/lion animals. It took the boys exactly eight days to remember that I promised to start knitting them on vacation. The yarn (db cotton dk) is actually made in Italy, so it's a little homecoming for it. I've finished two other little knitting projects (pics to come later) and am past the gusset on my sock pal's final sock.

Yo, sockapaloozas, there's barely 40% of you done. Knit, knit, knit. Hey, if Harry can ... ... then you can finish those socks! ;0)