Wee one has a new idea for blocking the hemlock ring blanket.

And she loves the fabric bowl I just finished for Dani's leap-year birthday.

Bowl facts: fabrics are Kaffe Fassett's Targets and shot cotton on the bottom - love that teal! - and the instructions are from Fast, Fun and Easy Fabric Bowls or online at Simply Quilts. Not that any of that matters to wee one.

I'm halfway done with stockie, um, I mean smockie (from the second little Sublime handknit book - free pattern here). Be warned, that's a lot of stockinette there folks!

about 3 seconds later

I'm making the 1-2 year size because my wee one is a big one-year old. After I finished the back and held it up to her, I saw that there was plenty of length in the skirt, so I decided to rip out the garter stitch bodice section and shorten it for a little more of an empire waist shape. Trust me, it'll look better on my babe.

And a little try-on...

Oooooo, so cute!

Yes, somehow I've found myself casting on for yet another itty bitty hat. But after all the girly, flowery, pink-y hats I've made from the book, this time it's a boy hat, the football hat.

before wee one

after wee one

Is it just me or has everyone been having girls? Finally an acquaintance that's having a boy! I had to actually go out and get some appropriate blue yarn, since my scraps and my stash have all turned pink. I'm using this new Crystal Palace angora blend yarn called Bunny Hop. It's very nice actually with a lovely hand and sweet colors. There isn't however a good taupe-y brown color for the football. I spied some hideous olive-y brown Calmer at my lys the other day that would have done, but then I kept thinking what the blazes am I going to do with the other 170 yards of this yucky colored yarn?! Lucky for me, I have some connections. Dani has knit just about every itty bitty hat in the book (scroll through her 2007 gallery to see them all!) and has some football brown leftover for me to borrow. Hooray!

Kool-aid yarn dyeing with the first graders - what could be more fun?! Well, I thought it would be fun at least. They didn't really get into it until they saw how clear the water got after cooking the yarn. That got 'em. And then there was the smell. "Mmmmmm, it smells so good in here," they all kept saying. "But does it taste good?" one girl asked every five minutes. Ha. Ha.

I'd prepared five mini-skeins of some Knit Picks Dye-Your-Own and other white wool leftovers I had and the girls picked out the colors to dye them. We mixed up kool-aid in mason jars and dunked the yarn in, sometimes one whole skein in just one color and sometimes we put half of one skein in one color and half in another. We zapped it in the microwave a couple of times following these directions (no, we didn't put that metal pot in the microwave - it was just to hold the wet yarn before and after) and here's what we got.

The red/yellow one was supposed to be purple and yellow. The "purple" kool-aid simply came out red. I overdyed it at home with some blue in an attempt to make it a little more purpley but ended up with only a kind of cranberry red. Oh well. The others came out quite well though, especially the blue and green. Every time I've done the kool-aid dyeing I have had the best success with orange, blue, and green. The reds often have to be re-dyed to achieve the color you want and the yellow requires a couple of packets of kool-aid to even show up much at all. Still, I'd definitely call our little afternoon of dyeing a success. And this week - our last week! - everyone gets to take home a mini-ball of some of the yarn we dyed as a souvenir.

And yes, they smell great!

Finally, wee one in her birthday cake hat!

She enjoyed some real birthday cake (decorated by the boys!) at a little celebration we had this past weekend with grandma.

And was as pretty as can be in her birthday dress, wearing the ribbons from her presents.

It's Sally in her new psychedelic a-line dress! Babe and dress pattern are from Knitted Babes and fabric is from RJR fabrics' So You Sew Fun line. The pattern was so fun to make - just like a little dress I'd make for wee one, only muuuuch smaller. It has a little muslin facing on the inside to make the armhole and neck edges nice and neat and a double turned hem. It was great practice for improving my skills at dressmaking. And it fits her wonderfully. The babe body is so narrow (S insists that the naked babe looks exactly like a wooden spoon!) that I can easily squash it up to fit through the neck opening. Then when I let go, she fills out just enough again to keep the dress on. I had read that some folks had problems with clothes not fitting or staying on, but this one and the other dress work fine on Sally. And her little panties are also still on - even though I was too lazy to add the elastic to the waist!

Wee one got Sally on her birthday. She spotted her right away during Sally's photo session.

And fell in love.

By the way, that cute fabric on the chair next to wee one is from a doll quilt that wee one/Sally got for her birthday from knitting and quilting buddy Carol. Isn't it precious?!

preeeeetty

Lucky for us all, S and B spent almost two hours this weekend playing Lord of the Rings The Boardgame with daddy and defeated Sauron, destroyed the ring and kept the world safe for hobbits everywhere.

This is one of hubby's favorite board games, not only because he liked Lord of the Rings but because it's just a good game (for an excellent review, see this site). It's actually a cooperative game where all the players are working together to defeat Sauron. Each player is one of the hobbits - B was Frodo, S was Sam, and hubby was Merry - and they venture through Moria, Helm's Deep, Shelob's Lair and Mordor together aided by other members of the Fellowship through cards along the way. They begin the game a certain distance away from Sauron (the original Dark Lord!) on the scoring track and as events unfold, Sauron creeps closer and closer to them. One of the hobbits holds the ring and if he is overtaken all is lost. The game is actually pretty tough to win with most parties eventually being overcome by Sauron. But although the boys did have some tense moments, they caught some lucky breaks and made it all the way to Mount Doom to toss the evil ring into the volcano.

Note this is not a Dungeons and Dragons-style role-playing game, although there is some die rolling and characters do have some special abilities. Still it's all card and decision based. It is complex though, requiring an adult to help negotiate the difficult choices. There is, however, an excellent kids' version for folks with younger kids. Oh and for the ladies, unfortunately it's not a movie tie-in game, so sorry, no Viggo Mortenson or Orlando Bloom pics on the cards or anything!

The eye of Sauron is upon you. But don't worry, S and B are looking out.

Last week I finished a fabulous little mod geometric blue dress for wee one's new dolly, Sally. I had thought about making a matching dress for wee one, since she has those same beautiful blue eyes that Sally has and the blue would look fab on her, but I knew that my lqs didn't have any more of that fabric (from RJR Fabrics' So You Sew Fun line). Well, it just so happened that wee one and I needed to get out of the house for a few hours over the weekend (so the boys could save the world in peace) so we decided to go looking for the fabric somewhere else. We found it at the totally awesome but not so local quilt shop Quilter's Way and it was even on sale!

it looks good enough to sit on

One psychedelic a-line dress for wee one underway! The pattern is Butterick 3772 and I know it'll look great on her because I just finished a dress for her with this pattern.

wee one with her new purse she got for her birthday

This dress is actually corduroy, perfect for the never-ending winter we've got going on here. It's called "cool cords" from Robert Kaufman Fabrics, is very soft and has the most awesome pink flowers all over it. It was easy to make with a little facing for arm and neck openings and a simple hem. My hemming is improving! The hem here is way better than on the first little dresses I made for wee one. Maybe after another few dresses for wee one - and Sally - I'll finally have it down!

It's toy time again!

yes, I'll admit it, I am too lazy to wind hanks anymore

I've started Blue Sky Alpacas' baby Bobbi bear in their incredible dyed organic cotton. I'm using the hot, hot, hot pink color because it's what was in my stash and I kinda got a kick out of imagining this cute bear in such a shocking color. We'll see how it turns out!

The pattern is a bit wacky. It's right enough and clear enough, but you never quite seem to know where you are or what's going on. I suspect that I'm not the only one who's felt like this because the Blue Sky folks have posted some helpful pattern clarifications on their site. A few tips from knitbuddy Terri, who has made a ton of these (here's her ravelry page), helped me see what was going on. You knit the body first in the round, then divide and do some raglan shaping to make openings where the arms go, then you flip everything around and pick up stitches to make legs, then flip back, rejoin the front and back and begin the head. See why it might be confusing?!

My favorite thing is the cute little short-rowed butt. There's actually a pattern section titled "Butt". Oh, the boys would love that!

As usual with toys, none of it really looks like anything cute or cuddly right now. The stuffing and finishing touches always make the difference. Until then you just gotta wait for that toy knitting magic to happen!

The quilting marches on.

Look at the little quilt squares all lined up like little soldiers in a row. One more seam on all of them and they transform into...

... butterflies! These were the pieces for a teeny mini-quilt I made for B based on the the quilt square he designed in school. He wanted me to make 9 blocks so he could see the purple triangles come together in the middle to make diamonds.

Math is cool. Heck, quilting is cool. Today when I dropped him off at school, he actually read the class' copy of The Quiltmaker's Journey to me! (Very pretty book and very sweet.)

My own journey of quilting a block a month continues apace. I finished my two blocks for February just in time to pick up the March ones.

the "Card Trick" block

"Air Castle"

And as it is already March, that means that Sew Mama Sew's quilting month is sadly at an end. I do have one new project from the quilting frenzy last month that will keep me busy for a while still, a colorful cartwheel quilt.

I couldn't resist these fun polka dots from P&B Textiles' Pop Parade line when I saw them and was only waiting for an equally fun pattern to use them in. When they featured this fabulous quilt as the quilt of the day, I thought that would be just right for my fun polka dots! I have a good start with 20 blocks already completed, but I've got at least 10 or 20 more to make and some tricky maths to do to figure out how to arrange them.

Hmmm, perhaps I should ask B for help with that!

smockie: back and front

Well, I've finished the front and back of the smockie dress (from the second little Sublime handknit book - free pattern here), but as you can see they don't match. This is on purpose and must be changed of course. So here's what happened....

First I knit the back as directed. I checked the length and, as it was pretty long, I decided to reknit the garter stitch section, taking out about an inch to shorten the dress overall and also to bring the waistline up higher for a short little empire bodice look. Cute!

Okay so far.

I proceeded to knit the skirt part of the front. This in itself was no easy task as I first had to find more yarn! I only had two balls of the cashsoft dk in my stash. I had hoped that one ball would make it up to the beginning of the garter stitch, which would allow me to work both back and front skirt sections in this lilac color. My plan was then to get a ball of a second color to work the garter stitch bodice sections. But one ball of cashsoft dk only got me about 3/4 of the way up the skirt. So I used two balls for the back and had none left for the front. Luckily, knitbuddy Lisa recognized the yarn as some she had in her stash and let me have her last two balls. Not exactly the same dyelot, but you can't tell the difference, can you?

Alright, front skirt section knitted following resolution of mini-yarn crisis.

Meanwhile, I've taken the pieces in and out of the knitting bag several times and have started to notice that the garter stitch straps on the back are getting kinda stretchy. They're knit on the same US6 needle that the stockinette is knit on and they've got a LOT of give. I start to think that this is a problem I should fix now before I finish the thing and end up hating it. So I finished the front, knitting the garter stitch section with a US3 (the size called for for the little armhole edging) and what an improvement! It's actually not significantly smaller (the difference in lengths you see in the picture above is mostly due to the back having longer straps), but it holds its shape so much better. Now alls I have to do is just reknit that back bodice section AGAIN.

So if you're knitting this one, I'd definitely recommend doing the garter stitch at the bottom edge and at the top in a smaller needle. (Yeah, I goofed and did the bottom edge in the smaller needle out of habit even though the instructions call for you to use the US6 there. Sometimes habits are a good thing!!) You don't have to go all the way down to a US3 like I did - it was just what I had around - but I think it significantly improves the final look of the dress to have neater, tauter knitting in those sections. And if you're lucky, you'll only have to knit the thing one time!

Yes, it's pink eye, making me yucky and gunky and keeping me from trying on or playing with any of the new things mama just made for me. Pictures of those next week!

Yes, today is in fact national quilting day. I'll be celebrating by working on my funky monkey quilt. I've missed those little monkeys!

I've cut and organized all the center and corner blocks.

(oh, here's the pattern I'm using)

And last night I started sewing all the strips together for the four-patches.

Many quilts made up of squares can be pieced together from strips of fabric. Yes, if crocheters are hookers, quilters are strippers! Like converting a knitting pattern to be worked in the round, sewing together strips and then cutting them into smaller units just goes much faster than the traditional method of working with a bazillion tiny pieces. Well, a bazillion may be exaggerating a bit. Let's do the math together, shall we? There are 27 strip sets in the picture above (that was 54 strips, sewn together in pairs). After pressing the seams, I spent about three hours cutting them into square pairs, getting about 8 from each strip set. Soooo, that's a grand total of 216 square pair units, which will make 108 four-patch units.

All told, that's over 300 cuts, but only 27 seams so far. Once I sew together the four-patch units, I'll have sewn 135 seams. If I'd done everything the traditional way, I'd have cut 432 individual squares, which would mean almost 500 cuts and over 300 seams.

Doesn't this sound like fun? Did I mention there were monkeys?

I'm squeezing in a little computer time here at the end of another day of doctor and dentist appointments. The last few weeks have been a perfect storm of ear infections, pink eye, check ups, orthodontic work, and even teeth extractions and today and tomorrow are the busiest of all. Wee one and her brothers are, I hope, finally on the mend. Despite a cold, teething, and the pink eye, wee one still manages to be a busy girl, playing with her toys including Sally her birthday babe.

Her favorite thing to do is to find Sally, remove any clothing she has on and drag her around by one of those long limbs, her hair, or her funny floppy neck.

Her mommy's been busy too, of course. But despite countless hours spent in the car ferrying kids back and forth to various medical professionals, I've actually managed to squeeze in quite a bit of knitting and sewing. Stay tuned this week for a parade of finished projects!

We begin this week's parade of finished projects with one for me because wee one isn't exactly looking photogenic these days. I don't look any worse than I usually do, so here goes. It's an oldie, started many months ago and left lying neglected until now, almost finished, underneath all the baby projects. Drumroll please....it's Ron's animal crackers hat from Charmed Knits!

I love these colors. I can hardly believe that I actually dyed this yarn myself! It seems like ages ago, which it must have been since it had to be before I was pregnant (no chemicals with baby in the house!). And I love this pattern. Eileene, the designer, reproduced it just perfectly (here's the original). The hat itself is neat with its little retro zigzag design and then there's the fun part...

The braids!

Silly, yes, but not too ridiculous I hope. I did change the hat so it covered my whole head and didn't sit, like the original, like a beanie just on the top of the head. It is a hat, after all. But I couldn't leave off those braids!

Now I wanna make that ragg raglan sweater of Ron's (with Jenn's awesome pattern from Charmed Knits). Hey, if I start now, maybe I'll be done for the winter and the release of Half Blood Prince! Is it too early to start planning our movie premiere knits?? (Please say no.)

Look, I have a new dress.

I feel like a big girl now.

Notes from mommy: pattern - smockie from the second little Sublime handknit book (free pattern here); yarn - cashsoft dk (3 balls for the 1-2 yr. size); modifications - worked all garter stitch (edging and bodice) in a US3 needle and shortened the bodice by one inch. This was a quick knit, from casting on to trying on in two weeks. With the decrease in needle size on the straps and the one-row edging along each side of the straps that the pattern calls for, I'm not too worried about the top stretching out and becoming a problem. It's definitely a pattern I'd make again for wee one or as a gift for another little girl. And best of all, wee one seems to like it and it suits her very well. I think purple may be her color!

We've seen our next finished project for this week before. And looking pretty much like it does now. With one small difference: no more pins! The hemlock ring baby blanket I started for Shannon's baby-on-the-way has had its last blocking and was sent off to the expectant parents last week.

sniff, sniff, it's all grown up and gone out into the big world
(click for the BIG version!)

Who knows how long the cotton/silk blend will hold the blocking. I hope that baby will like the blanket enough that it'll acquire that dragged about stretched out look that all well-loved blankies get and no-one will ever care whether it lies perfectly flat or not. Baby blankies aren't meant to be wall-hangings anyway, right?

Flat or puckery, I just can't get enough of that center flower design! It's perfect for the first day of spring: blooming flowers, newborn babies, it's lovely.

Oh yeah! It's a giant fabric flip flop that I just finished sewing up for wee one. Now before you ask why on earth I would sew a big flip flop, remember that I'm the girl who made the knit boot! I'm a little weird, yes.

Okay, so here's the story... I'd seen this pattern (Fancy Flip Flop Pillow from Roommates' More Splash than Cash series of sewing patterns for teens) and a sample at my lqs a couple of times and thought (like you, I'm sure) what a ridiculous thing. Why would you ever make such a silly thing? What are you supposed to do with that? Then I went to the shop another time with wee one. She spotted the flip flop and dragged it around by the strap the whole time we were in the store. The next time we went to the store, she went right to it again. Well, mommy can take a hint! I picked up the pattern - great pattern, super simple to sew up, by the way - and pulled out some really fun fabric I got at Ikea.

I centered this cute birdie on the top and put some other fun animals on the bottom.

And wee one likes it! There is actually an odd little warning on the pattern noting that "this is not a toy", but wee one begs to differ.

So yes, I sewed a flip flop. And I may even have some strange affinity for crafting useless footwear. But wee one's happy and that's all that matters, right?

horrible chicken fabric I nixed from my March block of the month

the boys dyed easter eggs!

a blue egg for the blue blog

the easter bunny "hid" some eggs for wee one

Hope you had a happy Easter!

Do you remember that line from Kevin Meaney? I love that line. Say it all the time for no reason. Too funny.

There is a reason this time though, wee one needs bigger pants.

So some new baby bell bottoms are underway for her in cherry red Knit Picks Shine Sport from my stash. She needed some red pants and I couldn't really find any in this kind of style (my gal is just not a leggings sort of gal). When I come to think of it, I wrote the bell bottoms pattern last year because I didn't see any pants in the stores exactly like the ones I wanted for her. So here we are again. I guess we're just bell bottom pants people.

I know, I live in New England, the Patriots blah, blah, blah, but I can't help it, I don't like football. I do love this little football helmet hat from Itty-Bitty Hats though.

It looks just like one of those old-timey leather helmets (except for the baby blue color of course). Probably provides just as much safety too, huh?

This was knit for a friend of the family for his very first grandson. They're from Texas, so I think the football theme should be well received by the daddy. Here's my question though. I'm so tempted to add a little something fun to the top of the hat like a pompom (like Dani added to the hat she made last year and Dani is my guide in all things itty bitty hats!) or even the little sprout dobber thing that the original pattern calls for (Dani also tried one of these). But I don't want the dad to think that the hat has been girl-ed up somehow. What do you think? Cute enough on its own? Daddy should just live with a little pompom? Help!

It's a knit-rescue! I just love it when I have a reason to pull a neglected, half-finished project back from the brink of abandonment.

I started this Tea for Two sweater (from Miss Bea's Rainy Day) last year at about this time for a just-born little cousin. Well, time passed and, um, we never see that cousin anyway (bad knitter, bad knitter!). But now there's a new little one to knit for in our closest circle of friends. What better reason to find that cute little sweater and finish it up?!

I only had one side completed when I put it down almost for good. Now I'm sailing along on the second piece, remembering and enjoying how teeny tiny baby knits are and how fast they knit up. If you actually knit them.

Sorry about the bad pun, I couldn't help myself, this pink baby bobbi bear is just so beary beary cute!

I'll admit that I was more than a little worried about the how the hot pink Blue Sky organic cotton would look in a big bear (yes, it's about 15" high - and this is the baby bobbi bear!). I sort of started this on a whim to see how it would come out and was completely surprised and thrilled when she came out so well! I added a little brown nose and eyes with some scraps and she's simply adorable. Blindingly pink - you're not going to misplace her anywhere - but adorable. And the yarn is soooo soft. With the addition of the stuffing, you can't help but squoosh her all the time.

The pattern was truly a blast to knit. I had lots of fun flipping and working in one direction, then in another, adding short-rows for the bear butt and the cutest little ears ever. This is one of those patterns you could really enjoy making over and over. It may seem confusing when you first take a look at it since you're working in all sorts of different directions all the time but you can read through Blue Sky's helpful notes about the pattern for some additional explanation about working each section.

This beary pink little cutie has gone to live with another newborn cutie, Shannon's baby. It's just cuteness overload down there these days!

Wee one, sporting her new one-glove Michael Jackson look.

This is one of her mittens I made for her last year (pattern from Adorable Knits for Tots). Once the chain broke that held the two mittens together and in her jacket, she started playing with the one mitten that was left. She'll bring it to us, make her little chirpy, pleading voice and stick her hand out. We slip on the mitten and she is so happy!

Last week I was so upbeat about having saved my poor "tea for two" sweater from abandonment. I knitted the entire second piece, all proud of myself, feeling good to be finishing it and giving it away to a deserving little person. Then I noticed in the picture that I posted that the ribbing was shorter on the second piece and suddenly every tiny thing that I never liked about this sweater just came rushing up and I decided it was a goner after all. I'm done with that sweater. (Love the pattern still, love that jo sharp classic wool still, but together I guess I never really fell in love with it. Hrrmpff.)

But tiny newborn baby Clara still deserves a sweet little sweater. So I dug through my stash and pattern books and within 15 minutes I'd chosen the cutie patootie Tide cardigan from Miss Bea's Seaside and cast on for it with the rest of my cherry red Knitpicks Shine Sport.

lookie, I'm already farther along than I ever was with the tea for two sweater!

Much better, right? Yeeeees, this one I like.