It's the first day of October and already I can feel the snow coming.

So I'm making a snowman hat (pattern from Itty-Bitty Hats) to help reconcile myself to the inevitable. I've wanted to make this hat for so long. And considering that I have already made eleven hats from this book, I'm surprised I haven't made this one yet! The yarn is Berroco Pure Merino - nice and soft with crisp colors - and as usual, the pattern is amazingly clever. I can't wait to make the cute red scarf to go around the brim!

I've also got plans for scarves and gloves for myself and, of course, more new hats for wee one. After some recent sweater disappointments and a general big project knitting malaise, I'm hoping this can be a new start for me. It's knitting season and it's on!

It's October! Let the Halloween costume fittings and try-ons begin!

First up are the hats: one official Mario hat, one satiny blue butterfly hood (still have to put the antennae in that) and one official Wario hat. I found the hats for the boys online. They fell in love with them so I treated them to real hats instead of mommy handmade. I'm still making the overalls though. The boys can't get out of things that easy!

Mario overalls underway!

Wee's butterfly hood was a humongous pain in the butt to sew with massive curved seams that didn't fit. Grrrr. And then after all that, the thing's too small! There's no way I get the little tabs at the bottom to overlap so I can secure them. I think I'll add a little ribbon to tie them together instead. Still, the hood is too small in the back. You'd think that a 4 year size would be big enough for my 2 1/2 year-old, but apparently her head is huge. Fingers crossed the jumpsuit has been sized better.

stitching on the sparkly tummy

We'll see in the next try-on!

Wee finally got to wear her Oliver & S Jump Rope Dress today! I had promised her it'd be all done for Tuesday and I did finish the sewing Monday night, but then I realized I had neglected to buy any buttons! I picked some up at the store on Tuesday, sewed them on and then decided on Wednesday that they looked so good, I needed two more for the pockets. This morning when she saw the dress hanging up, she said "that my mushroom dress? with the pockets? is all done?" Yes, yes, and yes!

It's a great fit - mostly because I made the 4 year size for my giant 2 1/2 year-old. I like long dresses on her and there's more length in those cuffed sleeves, so I'm hoping she'll be able to wear it next year too.

And I can't even tell you how much she loves the pockets. By the time it was finished, she'd already come up with plans for exactly what she was going to keep in them (her tiny glow in the dark fairies and two of her big brothers' favorite erasers). I was telling her about the next dress I'm going to make her - a dress with Olivia, her latest cartoon obsession, on it - and she looked super excited and asked, "with pockets on it?!" Okay, with pockets on it.

Next up in the Oliver & S sew-a-thon, the 2+2 blouse.

Alexander Henry's birds have been waiting a while in the stash to become something beautiful and, let me tell you, Oliver & S don't do anything but beautiful.

What's wrong with this picture?

Well, there's the fact that this sweater was finished in March and it's now back on the needles. Or the fact that the designers of this Rebecca pattern stopped designing when they got to the neck, leaving me to do their work for them. Either way, I'm annoyed. It's started getting cold here and I wanna wear my orange stripey sweater! So far I've tried five times to put a new neck in here and have been foiled by dumb mistakes (forgotten bind offs, wrong needle, etc.). But this time I may have finally gotten lucky. Or smart. Whichever it is, it doesn't matter. All I care about is that I may be on my way to an honest-to-goodness gen-u-ine finished sweater.

Woot!

Thirty-three degrees outside. Snowflakes falling in the 'burbs. Kids in winter coats on their way to school. Winter's come early. Someone needs a scarf!

Although his hat's still open on the top, so he might still be a little chilly. Gimme a break, I thought I had a few more weeks before snowman (hat) weather!

Wee one is on a serious Olivia kick right now. She loves the Olivia shows and the Olivia books. She calls her "Live-ya", as in "watch Live-ya now?" or "read Live-ya book again?" So naturally, I have to make her a "Live-ya" dress!

click to see all the big things Olivia can do

There are a couple of different Olivia fabric lines out there, all in the awesome bright red and white colors that Olivia typically wears. My favorite is this fab dotted print with big bubbles showing all the things Olivia can do. She's very versatile, you know. And in her own mind, she can do anything. She's always reminded me a little of my own wee one - maybe that's why. That and all the dresses.

And speaking of dresses, this one will be from Oliver & S's Bubble Dress pattern. This was one of the first Oliver & S patterns and I've always wanted to make it (check out an early review of the pattern, with a cutie patootie sample, at Sew Mama Sew). I wasn't entirely sure that the big pattern would look good in this style, but I took a chance and after cutting out the above pieces and laying them out next to one another, I'm convinced. Convinced, ecstatic, tickled, everything. I love it and can't wait to sew it up and see it on her!

It's not THE Olivia dress, but it is another dress from Pink Fig's Olivia Top pattern. I made a couple of these last year to show off a fabulously cool Alexander Henry turtle fabric. This time it's pink instead of orange and Amy Butler prints instead of Alexander Henry. And while the pattern is the same, I've added shirring at the waist and moved the sleeve gathers from the upper arm to the wrist. It's a-whole-nother look and I love it as much as wee one does!

Something else I did differently on this dress was to use the serger to make roll hems on all the edges. It's a simple, clean look that works so well with the shirring. The serger and I are starting to make friends and I'm really starting to see the benefits of having this sort of machine. I could get used to this.

And so after a week of freezing cold weather, including snow on Sunday, wee one got to enjoy a rare sunny day in her new sunny dress.

We're supposed to have another lovely day tomorrow and wee one has already requested her jump rope dress. Yes, I could definitely get used to this.

It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween around here! Wee one's butterfly jumpsuit is about halfway done and it's already totally cute and sparkly and butterfly-y. Can't you just see a couple of tiny legs coming out of those ruffly, lacy leg holes? I've still got the sleeves to add (also with ruffles and lace, of course) and then the wings to make. I'm a little intimidated by the wings since they involve stitching down sequin trim and using something called "armature wire," which I hope is just a fancy way of saying craft wire 'cause that's what I bought.

Wee one has a kiddie Halloween party this weekend, so I've only got two more days to finish up. And then one week to make the boys' Mario and Wario suits. It's Halloween crunch time!

Wee one was so excited on Sunday when it was finally time for her to put on her now-finished butterfly costume. I took a bazillion or so pictures to capture her first thrill at wearing her costume (and just in case there was some sort of wing or diaper catastrophe that might ruin the outfit before Saturday).

She was a bit of a shy butterfly at first but then she really got into it.

Yeah, she knows she's that cute! And look at all that sparkling! Sparkly wings, sparkly sleeves, and sparkly tummy all on a sparkly girl. This is so the perfect costume for her. The wings were a technical nightmare though (requiring 4 hours to get them into this state, which is very pretty but very unstable). It is also clear to me that I do not know how to work with wire. I've always said it: I can knit and I can even sew a little, but I am not crafty. Miraculously, the wings survived the kiddie Halloween party. When they would fall over, wee would say they were flapping. Sweet kid.

Wee's best buddy was a tree and they looked so cute together at the party among a sea of dragons and dinosaurs and furry creatures. She was the bluest, the prettiest, the sparkliest, and the onliest butterfly. She's one of a kind.

S's Mario jumpsuit is ready!

I am so relieved that this turned out as I had imagined. I made a full jumpsuit (following the pattern I'd used for B's bat-boy costume last year (minus the wings, of course). Once it was done, I cut away sections at the top to make straps and turn the jumpsuit into overalls. I stitched on the big buttons and it's Mario come to life!

S loves it. He tried it on with his special Mario hat and couldn't stop grinning. He says that all he needs to make the outfit perfect is a Bob-omb.

One Wario jumpsuit: check! B's jumpsuit is finished and approved by B himself. Thank goodness!

Let's take a moment to note a few things about Wario.

1. Wario wears purple? fuscia? What color is that exactly? I dunno, but damn if Jo-Ann's didn't have exactly the right color fabric for me! The important thing for B is that he wears a yellow shirt and a yellow hat. Given a choice of, well, anything really, B will choose the yellow one.

2. Wario is much plumper than Mario. B admonished me early on: "don't call him fat - that's not nice." To make the Wario costume, um, "wider" than S's Mario costume, I added about 2 inches to each of the front pieces of the jumpsuit pattern. There should be enough room for B to tuck a pillow under his shirt and, er, "bulk up".

3. Although I can make a Wario jumpsuit, I really have no idea who Wario is! A check at Wikipedia informs me that he is a sort of foil to Mario, sometimes even described as his evil twin. He's kind of an amped up, agressive, muscle-y man version of Mario with a creepier mustache. The "W" on his cap is even the reverse of Mario's "M". How cool is this? The boys seem to have picked out characters that let them act out extreme versions of their own twin identities! S will look wholesome and clean cut (while aiming a Bob-omb at you, of course) and B has an excuse to cackle wickedly at everyone (he's got a wicked good cackle, let me tell you).

4. Oh, and, we must not forget to note the little green leprechaun booties. I'm making some for the costume but even B is balking a bit at wearing them. Oh, Wario, how can you be so menacing in such silly little shoewear?