First, we found our way out of a maze. We made our annual trip out to the Davis Mega Maze to get lost and have some fun!

Wee one was amazing for the two and a half hour hunt for the exit.

We love this place. If anyone out there is a Boston local and hasn't visited this awesome corn maze before, I really recommend it. They make it especially fun to do with the kids.

Speaking of the kids, the very next day the boys learned how to ride bikes! They got bicycles with training wheels for their birthday back in July.

Suddenly last week, B started saying that he wanted a bicycle. I said, 'you got a bicycle for your birthday.' He said, 'nooooo, I mean one with two wheels.' I explained that the little wheels on his bike were training wheels that could come off when he was ready to ride without them. He said, 'I don't want to wait for that. I just want a bicycle now.' I think he thought the training wheels were like baby teeth or something, falling off when "it was time." I kept explaining that daddy could take them off anytime and he kept insisting that he couldn't wait. So hubby got out the wrench and voila, B gets a bike. After a couple of falls, he was off like he'd been doing it forever.

S couldn't let his brother have all the glory, so he took a few tumbles and then set off on his own.

And while all the boys were out with the bikes, I was at home making friends with magic loop. It's not like we were enemies, but I hadn't ever warmed to it. I like my dpns. I like doing socks on dpns. A couple of years ago, everyone talked about the magic loop like it was some sort of great revelation. I tried it and there was no epiphany, so I went back to my dpns. As I started wee one's pinwheel jacket on dpns - it's knit in the round from the center out - it was looking like crap on a stick (well, crap on three sticks actually!). So I snuck into the (napping) baby's room to get different dpns, but in the dark all I managed to find in the right size was a long addi circular. Desperate times and all that. I gave it a shot.

Hey Mikey, she likes it!

I might even consider doing socks this way. As long as I can get me some of those fab Addi Lace needles! Hee, hee.

Oh yeah, and then I finished the pinwheel sweater.

Yes, it's all done, (the other sleeve too, you skeptics!), it fits and wee one likes it. It's blocking now, so I'll see you tomorrow with all the finished pictures.

That's enough for one weekend, don't you think?

Here she is, the wee pinwheel.

I love it! The colors came out looking beautiful together (I claim no great color sense; they were in this order on the Knitpicks color card!) and the loopy edge, which I wasn't quite sure about at first, is a really sweet touch. It took no time to knit the actual sweater. If you're planning on making this be warned that the main sweater part is just about a third of the work. That loopy edge takes another third of the time (okay, maybe a little less time, but definitely more energy!) and then those sleeves go surprisingly slowly. I used practically no yarn from all but the last two colors. Seriously, the skeins look untouched! But I only had a scant couple of yards left of the last color. I was sweating bullets worrying that I wouldn't make it around that loopy edge! Overall, it's a pretty easy knit once you deal with magic loop or the dpns you need to get the early part of the circle done. An easy knit, so of course, I kept making mistakes! I managed to lose the starting point somewhere early on and started working pattern rounds for a round and a half. Ugh! Then after fixing that, I managed to place the sleeves in the wrong place (I'm going give at least some of the blame for that to the pattern writing there). And finally, where the pattern switches to garter stitch, I managed to lose one of the final yarnover increases and had to spend thirty minutes finding it and reworking the garter stitch. I hate to think how fast I could have knit it if I hadn't been so incompetent the whole time!

A few notes on the changes I made. After swatching, I found that I really liked the Knitpicks Swish Superwash on a US7 needle, so my gauge is a leeeetle bit smaller than called for in the pattern. The child size is supposed to go from 9 months to about 4 years, but mine fits my 6 month-old wee one great right now and should last her at least until she's two. I really like the fit that it has now and consider the gauge change a lucky accident. The second change I made was in the sleeves. I was suprised by how much I liked that garter stitch edge in the last two colors of the body of the sweater. It really transforms the circle/blanket looking thing into a proper looking jacket. So I decided to do the sleeve edging in garter stitch as well instead of in the rib called for by the pattern.

It rolls up just as well and will have a neat bell look when wee one is older and wears it rolled down. There's one more pic of her wearing it yesterday before blocking. She's napping right now, so you'll have to wait until Rhinebeck to see her modelling it again!

Now on to my Rhinebeck apparel....

Ready for school...

but is it ready for them?!

The cutest feet in the world (thanks in part to the Knitsmiths)!

Wee one's loving her t-bar heart booties, knit by Terri.

No. They just stick their tongue out at you! Yes, S's stupid sock creature is all done and has turned out looking like a silly sort of menacing rabbit.

Once again, I am amazed at the difference a little stuffing and face detailing makes on a toy like this. Do you remember how he looked before?! After our discussion last time, I did also made some adjustments to the ears and arms so they were a little less phallic looking. I think he's come out pretty PG overall. S thinks he's hilarious and does a funny laugh every time we look at him.

Here the still unnamed creature does a little turn for us.

Side view - that tongue is like a birthday horn! "THBPBPTHPT!" And the argyle back looks smart while possibly scaring off predators.

This was super fun to make - tedious at times with all the details and sewing on of tiny pieces - but I'm really looking forward to making the second one for B. It's given me a lot more confidence in my sewing too. Doing something where a little unevenness and imperfection is a plus rather than a minus really takes the pressure off. And still I find myself checking out the main seams between ear and body, for example, and thinking 'dang, that looks pretty good!' Sock monster, however, does not seem impressed.

As another sock monster slinks his way out of the primordial slime of the sock drawer and begins to evolve, let's work on putting those socks to another good use: saving sockapalooza sock pals who haven't received socks yet!

I sent an email last week to everyone who hasn't updated the database to let me know that they were done knitting socks and had sent them out to their pal. Thanks to everyone who responded! I'm making my way through all your emails now. A lot of you have been in contact with your pal and are still working hard, so we haven't needed many sock saviors so far. But I still haven't heard from the majority of the 180 folks who were listed as unfinished. Anyone I don't hear from by the end of the week will be considered to have dropped out and their pal will be put on the list to get a sock savior.

So sock saviors standing by, I'll start adding folks to the "needs socks" list this weekend. Please go to the database then to see if there's anyone in need who you can help. If you're one of those folks who hasn't yet received socks and hasn't heard anything from your pal, there should be a sock savior on the job by next week. You're welcome to send me an email next week to check.

A big thank you to all the sock saviors already hard at work and thank you in advance to all those waiting to help out other sockers. Let's rid sockapalooza of any sock monsters and make it a big success!

This is exactly how B wanted the eyes on his sock monster. Almost. I talked him down from twenty eyes to these seven. Then we sat down and played around with how to arrange them and he chose to put them like this all in a circle.

So this is a seven-eyed "Jordan" from Stupid Sock Creatures. B is keeping the name from the book and calling him Jordan. Poor Jordan can't really stand on his own, but he sure can see! My favorite part of him is his ears - they're so funny!

I did a much better job on Jordan after having learned all the construction basics on the first sock monster I made for S. (By the way, S's monster was "Wronky" in the book, but he's decided to call him Gordi.) Once you've made one of these, you can really make any of them. The instructions in the book are so good and so clear and the creatures come out looking so great! The boys couldn't be more thrilled about them. S keeps Gordi with him all the time. Yesterday after school they were hanging out reading the Lego catalog and watching "Dirty Jobs" together.

And now, finally, after a nine month wait (they were supposed to be Christmas gifts, remember?!), I can introduce the sock brothers, Jordan and Gordi. Aren't they a riot?!

PS - Jordan has a little corrective surgery scheduled for later today. After one day (and a half hour of sewing on buttons), B says he thinks Jordan would look better without all those eyes. Uh, yeah. Of course.

Ah yes, knitting! It's been a long day today with no school and a handful of errands to do and then I've been doing so much sewing, you'll forgive me if I forgot.

Ah yes, my Rhinebeck sweater. Well, my forearms, at least, are ready for Rhinebeck. The rest, not so much.

Hey, you going to Rhinebeck? I'll be there both days and doing some book signing on Sunday. So be sure to stop by and say hi!

Who knew you could buy fabric to make cloth baby books? Well, I didn't know. Johanna, who is preternaturally crafty, told me about these fabric panels you can buy to make cut & sew baby books. So cool! She even shared her brilliant idea of sewing in some crinkly paper with the batting so the book is a crinkle book. She's genius like that.

We found this book panel about Colors at our local Fabric Place. It was such a fun little project. Just cut, slap some batting between the pages and stitch them closed. About as basic as you can get. But I'm just so tickled that I've made wee one a book. A book! This is brilliant. I mean, think of it this way: how many sweaters does she really need? how many little dresses can she possibly wear? But books, you can never have too many books! And she loves books.

This is new for me. The boys thought books were only for eating. So let's see, she likes books and I liked making the book. That adds up to lots more of these planned for wee one. Up next, this Winnie the Pooh book I found at JoAnn's.

And since I have all this new experience at stitching sock creature stuff-holes and cloth book turning-holes closed, I thought I'd see what I could do with one of wee one's little toys.

she's got scissors, run away!

It's the cutest baby Totor softie, but what always disappointed me about him is that he didn't jingle or rattle or anything. So I opened up his wee bottom, stuffed in a little bell, stitched him back up and now he does.

And then, I made some baby food. Phew! Turns out, I make a lot of stuff in a day. What are you making today?

I'll be working on updating the sockapalooza database all day today, checking off who needs a sock savior and who doesn't. We'll probably need around 60 sock saviors. So if you're looking to make socks for a forgotten pal, keep checking the database to volunteer.

Also if you DID receive your socks, please be sure that you updated the database to indicate that, otherwise if your pal also forgot to update saying that they finished, it'll look like you need a sock savior. If you're not sure that you updated, just check your info real quick so we can avoid calling in sock saviors where they're not needed.

How about some cheers for sock saviors in the comments!!!

Just the edging left. And all those ends!

Where you know that the only thing that will cheer you up is knitting a silly wig hat for your baby?

Almost done and I can barely stop laughing long enough to finish it!

Well, not actually funny and not actually one thing, more like a vast conspiracy of things preventing me from blogging until right now. First, I had a school meeting, then a class field trip, then I had to feed the baby lunch, then it was time to pick up the kids after school, and then there was an impromptu playdate. Now, finally, about ten hours after I left the house, I can tell you that I finished the wee wig hat.

Unfortunately, I've made the bangs too short. We'll have to wait one more day for our finished modeled shot. Hey, it may not be real hair, but I'm sure wee one still wants her hair looking its best for its photo shoot!

Until then, I can show you some pics of her in her upside-down daisy hat (from Itty-Bitty Hats) which she's wearing now that it's chilly again.

Looooove that hat!!

Wee one helped me finish her wee hallowig this morning, so it was ready for modeling right after lunch.

By George, I think she likes it!

My wee wig mods:

Cast on 60 stitches, work rib as given in pattern for 4 inches. Cast on 20 stitches for bangs as instructed and work 2 inches before beginning decreases. Decreases were worked as written with markers placed at (counting from center of bangs) 13 sts, 14 sts, 26 sts, and 14 sts. This made a small hat that fits her 6 mo. head just fine, although the length in the back, combined with baby's general no-neck-edness, does tend to push the hat up off her head a bit when she looks up. But I don't think this design produces a perfectly snug hat anyway. So when adjusting the size for your baby/child, remember to keep stitch count as a multiple of 4, place your front markers two stitches before and two stitches after the added bang stitches (and the back markers in the same positions over the back half of wig), and add length based on baby's ability to hold up her neck!

And have fun!

I've been taking a peek at Susan B. Anderson's new book, Itty-Bitty Nursery and I'm drooling like wee one. You remember Anderson's first book Itty-Bitty Hats that I knit all of wee one's cutest hats from? Well, this book is even bigger, has even more projects, and they are just gorgeous!

There's a simple squares and rectangles baby set, a super sweet layette set I wish I'd made for wee one, a garter stitch baby blanket for knitters to make for an expecting friend, a funny grumpy teddy bear, and the coolest wipes box cozy ever (I am soooo making that one!).

But the really amazing projects in this book are the ones where Anderson has added her own unique details. She's so good at coming up with cute and whimsical ways of putting a new twist on baby basics. And she's really good at making very detailed and embellished projects seem make-able. Okay, I didn't finish that rosebud hat yet, but the other hats I made from Itty Bitty Hats were totally painless and well worth the extra finishing. And then she presents everything so clearly - hey, it's just small parts like an i-cord here, a few rows of garter stitch there - and it's all in such bright, fun colors that I can't help but think that I should totally make one of the pacifier clips.

psst... there's also an elephant and a froggy version - and you can get the flower pacifier clip pattern for free on Anderson's blog!

And I could make a few pieces of the 25-piece cupcake tea set (it even includes sugar cubes!). Hmmmm... maybe if me and my friends with girls all make a couple of pieces, the kiddies can play together with one complete set someday!

And a clothesline of mini-separates to decorate wee one's room (they'll go with the booties already hanging up in her room). Or even The Mobile. I capitalize it because it is absolutely incredible. You've gotta check out the book to see it!

But first, I think wee one is going to get a little chubby bunny. It's part of a set that is just so typical of Anderson's books - she takes her signature circles and dots and totally transforms a simple baby knit into a lilttle treasure.

And while I plan to make some things for baby to play with, I get to play with some yarn on my own. Clara Parkes, from Knitter's Review is coming out with a new book all about yarn, The Knitter's Book of Yarn, and she's playing a little fiber guessing game with a few folks. I guess to show them how little they actually know about the yarn they use. Well, that's how it is in my case at least!

Last week, I received these two tiny skeins of yarn and a clue to determining their fiber content. It's so fun to try to guess what they are. I can't wait for my next clue and then for the book, so I can really learn about yarn and see if I got ANY of the answers right. Ha!

Sock brothers Jordan and Gordi have a baby sister!

Made from a pair of Ozone knee highs that always fell down and bagged at my ankles, Prune is smaller and much sweeter than her big brothers.

Based on "Owlsley" from Stupid Sock Creatures, she's got cute pointy ears, felt eyes (no buttons for the baby!) and a ribbon tag of hair for hanging her on the baby's stroller. The knee high gave me so much fabric to work with, I couldn't resist making her a pretty dress to match her little purple shoe feet. And of course, the contrasting colored heel of the original sock really makes that funny sock creature mouth stand out. S insisted that I make her smiling, so I curved up the edges of the mouth just a bit.

Next to wee one herself, I think she's just about the cutest thing I've ever made!

... is for green, but it's also how I'm feeling about my Rhinebeck sweater right now.

I mucked up the sizing. Doh! Oh well, out it goes.

Double grrrrr.... I had such a busy week last week that I'm about 10 days behind in emails! If you've sent me an email recently, please know that I hope to get to all the emails this week. Sockapalooza may be needing a few more sock saviors, so check back at the end of the week!

Server troubles.... and now back to our regularly scheduled programming, A Baby tooth Story.

The dentithst took out my front tooththh yethterday. It wath an extra tooththhh that wath in the way of my big boy toothth. Whoopths, did I just sthpit on you? Ththhhorry, it wath an aththhident.

The baby Viking hat is underway! We all know, I love bobbles, so so far I'm loving this pattern.

And after a good trip out to JoAnn's Fabric, I'm ready to sew up costumes for the boys. I'm sort of winging the patterns - simple poncho styles, wearable, comfortable. It'll all be about the details that the boys want.

We've got a slighly sparkly white fabric for B's ghost. Boo! And guess who S is going to be?

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Spongebob, of course!

Semptember was national sewing month. No wonder I've gone crazy sewing things - it's in the air! I started a little early with the two dresses I made for wee one in August, but then in September, there were the three sock monsters and now a total of four cloth books.

I made three more this weekend, including two Winnie-the-Pooh books and a Mary Engelbreit baby animal book. The cutting goes so much quicker now that I've got myself a fancy rotary cutter and mat.

And why did I buy myself a fancy rotary cutter and mat, you ask. Well, in the madness that is national sewing month, I signed up for a beginning quilting class.

Oooh, I just want to eat all these yummy fabrics up!! It's been so funny to go to the fabric store and listen to the ladies there talk about their stash and how they have to store fabric in the dishwasher just to get it out of the way or how they can't let their husbands see how much stash they have. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? They may not be knitters, but I think I'm going to get along just fine with them. Hee, hee.

Calling all sock saviors!!

I've made it through all my sockapalooza emails finally and we've got a new batch of sock pals in need. Just a handful this time, but if anyone out there is ready to help out, go to the database and volunteer to be a sock savior. You'll be sent a link that will take you to a list of those folks needing make-up socks.

Sockapalooza four has ended with about 90% of the pals finishing and sending their socks! That's an awesome percentage, especially when you consider that there were over 1,000 knitters in the swap! About two thirds of the 100 people who did not receive socks have already been given sock saviors. The final group of 40 or so pals have been patiently waiting for their pals to finish their socks. As I hear from them that the pal knitting for them hasn't contacted them recently and they still haven't received socks, I'm adding them to the list of folks needing sock saviors. With the help of the sock saviors, I really think that we can end sockapalooza this time with everyone receiving a pair of socks! Woo hoo!!

Thanks so much and hooray again for sock saviors!!