I'm halfway through January's block of the month! It was my very first time working with triangles in a quilt block and this block put me to the test right away. It's a star within a star. You piece the smaller, inner star first, which means that you have to start with the teeny tiny triangles at the very beginning. And when you're working with tiny pieces like these, you gotta get everything just right. I had to restitch a couple of seams to get those triangle points nice and sharp, but man was it worth it!

I think I'm hooked!

This appeared yesterday on the door to the boys' bedroom:

"Everybody and daddy can come in here only if you don't break my toys."

So cute how S thinks we go in there to break his toys. Or how he thinks that wee one, the only one who does go in and break his toys, could read that. Or how he thinks that daddy isn't a part of everybody.

(PS - I had to close comments on this entry early because it was being super spammed! Sorry.)

When I drop my boys off at school, there's always the schedule for the day written on the board in their classroom. There's music and gym, word work, and sometimes morning math. Are you ready for a little hexagon math in the morning?

I spent some more time over the weekend trying to calculate the proper size of the hexagons in Erika Knight's patchwork throw from her new book, Classic Knits at Home. You might remember from last week that as I began making hexagons for the throw, I was puzzled as to what size they should be. Erika Knight gives the finished size of each hexagon at 7" x 7", which really doesn't make sense for a six-sided figure.

We left off our mathematical musings by noting that a regular hexagon is made up of six equilateral triangles and fits perfectly inside a circle (and not inside a square). At knitsmiths over the weekend, knitbuddy Carol took a few minutes to tackle the hexagon puzzle with me and realized that the length of each side of the hexagon would have to be equal to half the length of hexagon at its widest point. She didn't use exactly these words, but here's the gist: the length of the hexagon at its widest point is actually the same measurement as the diameter of the circle that the hexagon would fit into. Half of that length is the radius of that circle and that's one side of each triangle in the hexagon. And since they're equilateral triangles, the side of the hexagon must equal the length of that radius. With me so far?

If I crudely color in a couple of the triangles you can see that the widest point of the hexagon is the same length as two triangles and one side of the hexagon is the same length as one triangle. Fun, huh?

ignore the numbers in the diagram please, they're for the pattern not our math problem!

If we then look at the diagram of the throw, we see that the width of the throw is equal to 4 hexagon diameters plus 3 hexagon sides. Since the hexagon diameter is equal to twice the side, the width of the throw is equal to 11 times the width of each hexagon side (8 + 3). Erika Knight gives the width of the throw at 45", so each hexagon side is (skip the calculator) a little more than 4". And the diameter of each hexagon is 8" (twice the length of the side).

And it's height? Easy peasy. Divide one of the equilateral triangles into a right triangle and apply the pythagorean theorem. 4 (the hypotenuse) squared = 2 (the base of the right triangle) squared minus the height squared. Meaning, the height is (I got my calculator) a little more than 3 1/2". Soooo, the hexagon is twice that high, or about 7" high. Is that the 7" that Erika Knight first gave us??!!?!! Whew, how reassuring to actually find that number somewhere! Although I can only find one 7" measurement and still have no idea what 7" x 7" could mean. Still, can we verify that 7" height somehow just to be sure? Yes.

According to our diagram, the throw is six hexagons high and should measure 45". 6 hexagons at a wee bit more than 7" each is pretty darn close to 45". I'll take it!

Okey dokey, I'll be making and blocking my hexagons to be 4" hexagons (that's 4" at each side) that measure 7" high and 8" wide. And I'll be cutting my fabric hexagons to those measurements plus a little seam allowance, of course. Don't we all feel better now?

hexagons blocking, unaware of and unperturbed by the confusion that surrounds them

Are you ready for another little math session? We did knit hexagons yesterday and today it's quilt triangles.

The triangles in question are from my second block of the month quilt block. I'm making two block of the month quilts - the one my lqs is running this year (I'm halfway done with that block) and the one they ran last year (they had some extra kits available and I snatched up a complete set!). Last year's January block of the month was the Dutchman's Puzzle block, which is made up of eight triangle units called flying geese. Flying geese are really cool and very versatile. Sometimes they are lined up in rows like in this awesome quilt from Denyse Schmidt Quilts or sometimes they're used to make a star, like in my other January block of the month block. I actually decided to start with this Dutchman's Puzzle block first because the simpler flying geese arrangement seemed like it would be easier than that star within a star block. Uh uh.

But before we get to the problem, let's first look at how pretty my geese turned out. I was so proud of them. My very first triangles. So crisp and neat looking.

But then I noticed it. See the background fabric to the left of the point of the triangle. There's only supposed to be a 1/4" of the background there. That's because quilt pieces are generally sewn together with a 1/4" seam and are therefore cut larger than they're meant to be to account for that. But mine was too large. Or rather too small. One or the other. I wasn't sure. So I dashed off to the Button Box to see what I had done wrong. It turns out that there was actually an error in that pattern block! (It had been a year, so they'd forgotten that there was this error in the first block.) The instructions had you cut a square of the colored fabric, then cut the square in half diagonally to get each big triangle for the geese. But the square they had you cut was 1/8" too small! After knitting, it's hard to imagine that so small an error would make such a difference, but it does. If I sew two geese together to make one corner of the block, I'll get that bit of cream background between my triangles ruining the look of the piece and the piece would be smaller than it should be. And because the block is made up of four of these two-geese units, that error in the size is going to be multiplied four times over before the block is done. It's sort of like having your gauge be off - every stitch you're off will be multiplied over and over across the whole width or length of the piece you're knitting. It's not good.

Well the wonderful ladies at the store not only helped me find the error and found me more fabric to start my block again, they spent over a half an hour with me explaining all the relevant quilt math so I could make the block correctly and be able to check for this sort of error in the future. They were so awesome!

Here goes... if your quilt piece is a nice, lovely square and you're using a 1/4" seam, well then you only have to cut the piece 1/2" larger than desired so it will turn out to be the right size. Leave 1/4" on each side for the seam and you're perfect. Got it, square = 1/2". Triangles are, naturally, a little trickier. Because of the angles in the triangle, the 1/4" seam ends up leaving extra bits of triangle tips in the seam (see the little bunny ears in the pics above?), meaning you have to add more than 1/2" to the original square you divide.

If you're cutting the square in half diagonally to make what are called half-square triangles, then you've got to add, get this, 7/8" extra. What a crazy number, right? But it's true (see this link for a super mathy version of all this). And if you're making quarter square triangles (that's triangles cut from a square that is cut twice diagonally), you have to add 1 1/4". And check this out, if you want to cut long triangles from a rectangle, you need to make the rectangle 11/16" larger! Nutty!

So that is what they showed me. But in a very reassuring moment, they added, now go home and try it on some scrap fabric to be sure. "It's just math." I love that!

Young (this year's block of the month) versus old (last year's block of the month). Right (proper 1/4" seams) versus wrong (erroneous 3/8" seams). It's an epic battle. Of geese.

With a class of eleven first through third graders, I've had the opportunity to see a few knitting spools in action over the last couple of weeks. And here's what I've learned....

First up, the Lion Brand knitting spool. This is by far the cutest of the knitting spools I found for the kids. It's got the sweetest little face! Unfortunately, it also has the tiniest little opening at the bottom. To start spooling you need to drop the yarn end through the spool and then start wrapping the working end of the yarn around the pegs at the top. It was impossible to drop, push, shove, ease, or curse the yarn down into this puppy. I eventually worked out a method using a yarn needle. Thread the yarn needle, drop that in - yes, it will get stuck - then use a knitting needle to push the yarn needle down a bit so that you can grab the tip at the bottom and finally pull the yarn through. The problem of the narrow opening still persists though, since there's very little room for the knitted cord to move. This one is light-weight yarn only, folks.

Conclusion: It's frustrating to get it started. You definitely need to help the child get this one going. But, I have to say that the girl who used this knitting spool did an awesome job once she got going. She made lots of beautiful knitted cord and didn't ever seem to be troubled by the fact that the dk/light worsted weight yarn was pretty snug in the opening.

The Inox knitting spool is very similar to the Lion Brand spool, but better quality. You pay more for it, but it's entirely made of wood, it's longer, making it a little easier to hold, has nicer pegs that hold the loops better, and it's almost as cute with that adorable little face. The center opening is still a bit narrow though and because it's wood, it's still a bit grabby.

Conclusion: This one's pretty good. And yet it wasn't the favorite of my group.

Next, the crazy looking contraption that is the Clover Wonder Knitter. This one is so different from the others that I didn't want to get it at all, but I needed eleven spools and after searching at 4 different stores, this was all I could find. Despite looking complicated, this one is by far the easiest to use. The girl who started with this one was making cord in seconds and saying, "I'm knitting! I'm knitting!" while the others were still fighting over whether they were called knitting nobbys or knitting nancys. There are several reasons why it's so easy and fast: first, there's a tab that you thread the working yarn through; second, the center section with the pegs spins; and, third the pegs are nice and big with a little lip on the end that keeps the loops in place and a grove down the center that guides the pin. With the yarn threaded through the tab on the side, the child doesn't have to hold the working yarn anymore, they just spin the center and the yarn is in the exact right place ready to work another stitch. And with those nice large pegs and a larger pin, it's super easy to move the loops around. This largeness is also its main drawback though. The spool comes with two center wheels (the part with the pegs) - one for large yarns and one for small yarns. We used the smaller one and still, I wouldn't really recommend it for anything smaller than heavy worsted weight yarn. We were using worsted weight yarn and the cord was very open and holey. The girl using this spool said that her baby brother was always pulling her cords apart because they were so loose.

Conclusion: It's great for getting started! If you've got a child who you know is going to need immediate success to keep knitting, this is the spool to start with. But in the long run, it just doesn't make nice cord.

The hands down winner in our group was the Susan Bates Crystalites french knitter. It doesn't have a cute little face, but it comes in all these fun colors like yellow, purple, green.... And because it's see through, the child can actually see how much cord they've made even before there's enough done to hang out the bottom of the spool. (Trust me, in the first few minutes, this makes a HUGE difference!) The spool is nice and long, making it easy to hold. The pegs are straight, so not particularly easy to use, but they are longer than the Lion Brand spool's pegs, giving you a little more room for moving loops around, and the pin that comes with this spool has a little crochet-type hook on one end, giving you two options for grabbing the loops (I find that the regular point works best for me, but some of the kids really liked having the hook). The opening is plenty big for the yarn to be easily threaded at the start and for the cord to fall down as it is knitted. And since it's made of plastic, the yarn slides right through nicely. It's also not any more expensive than the other spools.

Conclusion: It's cool looking, it's functional, we liked it, we really liked it! And if your kids lose the little pin that comes with it, you can always buy some of the Susan Bates Crystalites yarn needles, which come in the same fun colors, to use to pull the loops off the spool.

Wishing you happy spooling!

My January block of the month is finished! And just in time too. This weekend I go in to get the next one. I can't wait!

I think it ended up being so pretty. Picturing your final result is so different when working with fabrics than with yarns. I really never would have picked out these fabrics (remember, this is a block of the month kit and the store has picked out the fabrics already), but now that I see them all pieced together, I find them so beautiful. I always think that I want bold, modern prints all the time, but I forget that each fabric will be used in small pieces, surrounded by all the other fabrics in the piece. Fabrics really do take on a different look when they're mixed together in a block or an entire quilt. It's not like a sweater that's just one yarn in one color(way), where you gotta love that yarn in that color 'cause that's all there is! I don't quite yet understand how different fabrics and colors work together, but I sure am enjoying watching it.

For this week's peek at the kids, the boys at play.

Their favorite activity these days is playing this "game" on the computer where you solve little puzzles Rube Goldberg style by building wacky contraptions. My old (old!) computer came with a game called the Incredible Machine that hubby and I loved to play before the kids were born. About a year ago, we introduced the boys to the thing and they raced through those puzzles in no time! This one is even cooler (the boys' words, not mine) because it has lots of bombs and explosions.

In both games, once they solve all the puzzles, they can invent their own contraptions and save them. The boys have over fifty contraptions saved on this game already. They'll build for a half hour or so and then when it's time to save, they'll call out something like, 'how do you spell explode?" Just check out these great names!

Someone's gone and declared it to be quilting month, so bear with me if I indulge myself in a little more quilting than usual here. (Update: look for my 9-patch block in the first week round-up of the Sew Mama Sew block-along!)

There are two quilts that I'm just getting started with now, both using the super fun sock monkey fabric from Moda.
The first uses all the cutie patootie monkey prints from that line (you may recall that I'm using this pattern). I've finished cutting out all the little monkey pieces and am ready to start sewing the quilt top together. I just can't get enough of those funny funky monkeys!!

The second quilt is a little more interesting. The latest fabrics in the sock monkey collection contain some of the prints you see above with the monkeys playing jacks or jumping on pogo sticks, but there are also some lovely little pastel stripes, plaids, dots and solids that coordinate with the sock monkey prints. I've taken all those fabrics out and have come up with a plan to make a scrappy star quilt for my little wee monkey with them. I'm using this pattern from the February issue of American Patchwork & Quilting.

I loved the stars as soon as I saw them. They're more delicate and seem to have more movement than the star I made for my block of the month quilt. But they're also a bit more complicated. So I decided to pull out some real scrap fabric (something a friend picked up in a yard sale) and sew up a sample star.

Each star (and there will be 18 of them in the final quilt) consists of 16 pieces, all but 4 of which are pieced together from half-square triangles (remember our math lesson on half-square triangles?!).

Whew, I can do it. Now to try it on the real fabric.

Piecing a star together is taking me about an hour (did I mention that there are 18 stars in the quilt? oh, and 17 other blocks only slightly less complicated?). Here's why...

Look at all those seams! But I love it, I love it, I love it.

I mean, seriously, does it get any better than this? I've got a beautiful baby girl. She's just about to turn one. And I get to make this adorable hat for her to wear.

It's the birthday cake hat from - yes, you guessed it, what else - Itty-Bitty Hats. I've been waiting to make this for wee one for, well, a year! For the cake, I used leftover Lana Grossa Merino 2000 that I bought in Germany to make the cottontail on the cottontail hat. And the yummy pink icing is Knitpicks Shine Sport. Making the icing was so much fun! I thought the crochet loops would be tedious to do but they were just so gosh darn cute, I was smiling the whole time doing it. I was so tickled by them, I had to show hubby the hat after each round of icing was complete: "Look now. It's so cute!" "Yup."

Then came the candle. Again, I imagined this would be fiddly or annoying, but no. It took no time to make and it came out perfectly. That Susan Anderson is a genius!

When the boys woke up the morning after I finished the hat and saw it on the counter, S said quizzically, "uh, is that, uh, a birthday cake hat?" "Yes, yes it is!" "Is it for the baby?" "Yes!" "But she has to wait two more months to wear it." "Nope, her birthday is actually only three weeks away." "Oh, wow!"

Why, that looks like another pinwheel sweater! Yes, I've just finished teaching a knitting class at my lys where we made pinwheel sweaters - what fun it was! Because the sweater has such a unique construction, I had to make a little sample mini-pinwheel along with my students. I was just going to rip it out, but then we discovered that it was the perfect size to fit on a Baby Bobbi Bear (and, what do you know, I'm teaching a class on that pattern next month!). So I'm finishing the thing off for baby-Bobbi-bear-on-the-way and am now just at "the loopy edge".

And here's the baby hemlock ring blanket I'm finishing up for best buddy, Shannon, and her upcoming arrival. I'm at... wait for it... the loopy edge. So let's compare loops, shall we?

For the hemlock ring's loopy edge, better known as "87th rnd", we work four stitches and a yarnover, turn, make five new stitches in the yarnover, turn again, and bind off seven stitches. Net loss of stitches: four.

For the pinwheel sweater, we work three stitches onto a dpn, then work 6 rows of i-cord on those stitches, and finally place them on top of the next three stitches of the sweater and knit them together with those stitches (sort of like a three-needle bind off but without the binding off). We're left with three stitches on the dpn ready to make 6 rows of i-cord for the next loop. Net loss of stitches: three.

So, which do I prefer? Well, I like the big fat loops of the pinwheel's loopy edge a lot, but having dpns and the original needles all dangling about at the same time is a bit annoying. The lovely curved loops of the hemlock ring's loopy edge remind me of pretty flowery crochet edgings, but that work-turn-work-turn thing always feels a little one-step-forward-two-steps-back to me. So, I like 'em both about the same. And I'm kinda liking doing them both at the same time. When one starts to feel tedious, I switch to the other. So I don't end up completely loopy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Thanks to Sew Mama Sew's quilting month, I've been playing around with different quilt blocks all week!

The double irish chain block.

The shoo fly block.

The ohio star block.

The Dutchman's Puzzle block. (You know the one with the flying geese that wouldn't fly!)

And three more pinwheel stars for wee one's scrappy star quilt.

While I'm making lunch in the kitchen these days, wee one keeps busy inventing new dishes. She's got a bin full of plastic pretend food and a toy microwave (both hand-me-downs from her brothers) and she randomly tosses things in the microwave for "wee one surprise stew".

Today on the menu: carrot-chicken-cheerio-orange-french fry-pie pie. Actually pretty tasty looking as far as her dishes go. Last week I found her shoes in there!

A little more than two weeks to wee one's first birthday! She certainly wouldn't notice if there weren't any presents for her, but I got it in my head to make her something. She'll have her new birthday cake hat of course, but although she likes sucking on the candle, that hat is really more for the adults' enjoyment, you know. So what would wee one really like? Perhaps another knitted dolly. She LOVES the dolly I made when we first found out I was having a girl. That and her blankie are her two must-have cuddling and thumb-sucking items. So... how about a little more grown-up doll for my little more grown up girl?

A student of mine from my pinwheel sweater class brought in a doll she'd made from Clare Garland's Knitted Babes and it was awesome! I bought the book right away and was thrilled to discover that except for one pattern for "the babes", the entire rest of the book is patterns for knitted and sewn babe clothes! Love it! What a fun way to use up little leftovers of yarn and scraps of fabric. Oh, I hope wee one likes her. I want to make this, and this, and....

This was how S described the quilt he wanted me to make for him.

Yes, he suddenly asked if I would make him a quilt. I suspect that by now he knows that the answer to this sort of question will always be an enthusiastic YES! And not only did I say yes, but, since I'm constantly trolling the internet for fun and fabulous fabrics, I'd already bookmarked some awesome rocket fabric.

He liked it and we got to work on designing the quilt. He would have had me just sew three strips of fabric together - stripes on the bottom, rockets in the middle and blue sky on top - and wrap his favorite color red all around it, but I wanted something a little more interesting. I flipped through the few quilt books and magazines I have and found this design, Just Sweet Enough, from Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts. (Love that book!)

Joelle Hoverson does such a good job in this book coming up with clean, simple designs that are striking but not overly complicated. In this design, she's essentially got horizontal stripes of several different solids, but since they're broken up into columns and separated again with the background fabric, the result is really neat. This was going to be perfect for S's rocket quilt!

I sketched out what the quilt would look like for final approval from S before I bought the fabric. I've learned from previous design collaborations with the boys that they are completely incapable of imagining the design in the book in any other color or print. Nope, the picture's got to be exactly right or they'll keep insisting that they didn't want pink and yellow. So I even made a little mock-up in Photoshop so he could really see it.

The design approved, I bought the fabric (I got most of the fabrics from this awesome etsy seller) and once I had it, I got to work washing and cutting it all. There's a lot to be done before you can get sewing! But once that was finished, sewing it up was a snap. (Seriously, I thought "last minute patchwork" would have to be a joke, but this one went FAST people!)

click for the BIG version

We like it! I love those zoom-y stripes on the bottom. And he's sure got plenty of blue sky for the rockets to fly up to.

There's still the actual quilting to be done (that's sewing the quilt top here together with the batting and backing) and I'm planning on trying something a little fancier with that, so this is still a ways from being done, but so far, so good. It's so satisfying to be able to bring something to life that one of the boys has kind of dreamed up in his head!

Before I end up on my deathbed mumbling something about rosebud, I figured I should pull out the remains of that rosebud wreath hat I started over a year ago for wee one. You may recall that my knitting buddies were so generous as to make all the little garter stitch flowers and leaves for me, leaving me only with the knitting of the itty bitty hat. Which I somehow didn't manage to finish. The hat I'd started way back then was now way too small for nearly-one-year-old wee one, so I ripped it out and started again. And, to be sure that I'd finish it this time, I went ahead and started sewing flowers on as soon as I had a few inches done.

The original hat pattern (in Itty-Bitty Hats of course) calls for flowers all the way around the bottom edge of the hat and my knit buddies made plenty of flowers for me to do that, but I'm really liking just this little bouquet here. I feel like it's pretty much perfect just as it is. What do you think? Either way, I think it'll be the perfect hat for spring!

Or am I remembering that rhyme wrong?

Well, school's out this week, so I'm not doing any spool knitting with my first graders today but it hasn't stopped me peeking around for more info on the subject. It's just so cool and weird, so hip and old-fashioned all at the same time. Don't think it's cool? Don't think it's hip? Just take a look at the latest issue of Knit Simple where there's a whole spread about i-cording and some lovely projects you can make with it, like this sweet bag and these fancy shoe laces.

I-cord is back, baby! There's beautiful beaded spool knitting going on, patterns for cute kids projects and ideas for grown-up embellishments all over the web. There are books on making your own corker and corking projects, and even mass market kits like this one from Klutz.

And if you're into the retro thing and want to knit it old-school, you can take a peek at the 1909 book Spool Knitting.

Or check out the Spoolknitter blog for gorgeous photos and stories about all kinds of cool and kitschy vintage knitting spools.

So spool knitting would appear to be kind of in right now in a retro sort of way. It certainly is a totally legit way of making something. But it's still a little weird, ya know?

While I've been sewing quilt blocks at home, the boys have been working on quilt squares at school. They've just finished a first-grade math/geometry unit called Quilt Squares and Block Towns that had them exploring the many ways that different shapes can be combined.

They started by arranging different shapes to fill various patterns and ended by designing "paper quilts", coloring in shapes within quilt square patterns. When I saw the patterns that they'd designed I suggested that we make real quilt squares out of them. Up first was B, with so-called "pattern E", a simple square in a square design.

B wants me to make eight more of these and sew them together so he can see the blue triangles come together to make a secondary diamond pattern. Clever, no?

S's square was "pattern A", a four-patch with two squares divided into half-square triangles. S's choice of colors made this pattern much more interesting than it would have been in a simpler color scheme.

He was so thrilled that I found blue fabric with yellow stars just like he'd drawn in class!

To fill out the theme, they read some kids' books on quilting, including The Quilt Story and The Quiltmaker's Gift, although I couldn't get them to tell me anything about either of them. Boys!

Still, maybe I should pick up this book?

lace undies for wee one's knitted babe finished just as they announced Best Picture

What did you do during the Oscars?

Because it took me forever to finish the loopy edge bind off on this hemlock ring baby blanket!

classic elite classic silk in a tweedy red

But I love it! It came out all wavy and ruffly, which I think girls up the blanket just enough. The whole thing is blocking now. It looks great all wet and pinned out.

i gotta get me one of those blocking board things, don't you agree?

But will it stay that way? Shannon's wee one is due in a few weeks, so I've got that long to block it into submission. Any tips from you experienced hemlock ring-ers out there??

Yesterday Grace called my attention to Teeny Project Runway over at Mason-Dixon Knitting. If you haven't taken a look at all the hilarious knits over there, you gotta check it out (Grace's entry was Hedwig the owl in his regal knitted cape). Anyhoo, I just finished up a new knit for wee one and, as usual, she was a very good model in our photo session. But since she's always walking and since she's always after the camera (she broke the last camera after a project photo session in October), I have to stand about 10 feet away from her and take pictures as she walks towards me and the camera. Therefore, all of our baby L pictures nowadays look like a runway show. So this morning I present you with a wee runway show.

First up, wee one in her latest itty bitty hat, the rosebud wreath (well, more like bouquet) hat.

I knit it in Berroco Touche and the flowers were knit by my knitting buddies in scraps of Rowan handknit dk. She's so good about wearing all these itty bitty hats! And a little something extra for the camera please...

Next a stunning sweater dress that was a store sample at my lys.

I loved this blossom sweater from Knitting at Knoon the first time I saw it and have recommended the pattern to many customers. It's simple but girly, hip and retro and it's knit in Dream yarn (it was a really nice angora blend from I forget who, but it's now discontinued, which is why the store sold the sample - UPDATE: found it! it's Dream from Marks & Kattens). The sweater is actually a size 3, but with the sleeves rolled up about 5 inches, it makes a sweet little dress. And now a turn...

And lastly, the swimsuit competition. Wee one loves the water! She gets so excited when she sees her little bathtub come out for bath time. So I signed her up for a baby swim class where we can splash about in the pool together. I had to find her wee swimsuit first though (which is tough in the middle of February, let me tell you!). When I brought the bathing suit home, she saw it and wanted to put it on right away. She wore it the rest of the day over her clothes.

Look at her pose!

Isn't that an adorable name for a pattern? I caught a glimpse of this cute little dress in the new Sublime kids book, The second little Sublime handknit book, and couldn't resist it. (Psssst, you can download a free copy of the pattern here!)

It's a simple little smock dress, should be one of those easy no-brainer knits I can do while watching tv - now that there's something to watch on tv again! I'm all about using my stash these days (wee one's this close to figuring out how to get the yarn out of my storage cabinet), so I pulled out a couple of balls of Rowan cashsoft dk I got on super sale at Webs last year and cast on right away.

Ahhhh, stockinette, take me away!

Introducing Sally, wee one's birthday babe (from Knitted Babes).

I named her Sally because it was the first name that popped into my head after I realized that "dolly" and "baby" were already taken by wee one's other dolls. Plus, the doll's floppy arms and legs instantly reminded me of the cover picture of the Silly Sally book. I also have this Dick & Jane fabric and the little girl Sally makes me think of wee one playing with her older siblings (well, if she would grow some hair!).

I put blond hair on the babe since I'm guessing wee one's hair will be blond (I also gave her some bright blue eyes like wee one's). The hair is actually Aurora 8 yarn left over from the braids on wee one's viking hat. I guess I've started just thinking of that as her hair now!

I LOVE how the stitches to hold the eyes on look like eyelashes!

Clearly though, I'm no hair stylist. The instructions in the book for the hair were also extremely vague. But that's okay cause I'm imagining wee one will just drag her around by the hair anyway.

And this book is really about all the doll clothes! Sally's first dress is a striped sun dress, which I knit in some cotton glace left over from my crinkle shrug. It took forever to knit! Well, the doll was pretty quick, so I suppose it only took forever in a relative sense. But it's a lot of garter stitch and all in a fingering/sport weight yarn, so the next couple of dresses will be sewn. A psychedelic a-line dress is already cut out and ready to go.

look at that cutie patootie pattern piece!

Oh, I'm having way too much fun with this!