You can find the Team Germany Hat pattern here!

(Although, after watching the Vancouver Olympics, don't you just want be Canadian?!)

This weekend, wee turned three! I can't believe it, but there is no denying that this is the face of a three year-old.

Also unbelievable is that fact that I've had this stripy raglan sweater on the needles for wee's entire life, but it is still not finished.

It's as close as can be though, with just the neck to finish. I ran into some sizing issues while I was doing the neck shaping (considering I cast on for a one year size, but am knitting to a four year length, I'm amazed I only ran into problems here at the end) and tested wee's three year-old patience quite a bit with multiple try-ons and adjustments. But it's all good now and the only thing keeping wee from her new sweater is about 75 ends that still need to be woven in and the unseasonably warm spring-like weather we're having. But both those will be taken care of soon enough, I'm sure.

Until then, she's loving being three.

Three: old enough to pick out your own outfit (American Girl shirt and twirly skirt), but still young enough to play with dolly (see her on the floor there?). And the perfect age to dance, dance, dance.

No kids' sweater or fun hat today.

Instead we have an incredibly long sweater dress. No, not knitted by me. I'm sure it was knitted by some machine somewhere. Because, really, who is going to knit ALL of that?!

So, I've been in a bit of a funk recently. I'm not knitting much and not sewing at all. I pretty much crash on the sofa at night, exhausted from my new life as an overworked and underpaid chauffeur. (We've gotten to the point where the boys are having different activities at different times and each afternoon has me dropping one off, then setting the kitchen timer so I won't be late to pick up the other one and so on and so on. I did, however, find 35¢ in their laundry the other day, which I kept as a tip.) Anyhoo, when my mom brought me this crazy long sweater dress that belongs to her friend and asked me if I could alter it a bit for her, I thought a little something different might help me get back into the swing of things.

The dress is actually a pretty awesome cable knit. But very sensibly, my mom's friend would prefer that it were regular sweater length. After a quick consultation with my knitting group, I've got a plan. I'll be carefully cutting off the lower half, being sure to secure the stitches and then reclaiming a bunch of the yarn to reknit the ribbing. As long as it doesn't involve any grafting in that cable pattern, I can do it!

Oh sure. I wasn't doing anything with them anyway.

So the rain has finally stopped, which means we can move our bed back to where it belongs since water has stopped dripping from the ceiling onto us while we sleep. But a few nights of no sleep has left me sick. Of course, I'm also running an early morning PTO project at the school and organizing a classroom activity for B's class for next week and juggling a schedule including two or three other school events. It's only Tuesday and I'm exhausted!

So, sure, honey. You knit. I'll just curl up in a ball somewhere and watch.

Knitted fruit, bunny butt baby shorts, a fabulous fancy poodle, and Mr. Roboto!

I love nutty knits! Great job Knit Picks!

The little Mandarin Petit stripy raglan sweater, it is done.

I am so thrilled to have finished something other than a hat! (Let's face it, it's been ages since I've finished a sweater.) But even more exciting than having finally gotten this non-finishing monkey off my back, is finally getting to see this cutie patootie little stripy sweater on my wee one.

Wee loves the sweater so much, she didn't mind posing for extra pics at all. So here's a back shot!

I love the colors on her. The Mandarin Petit cotton is so lovely. Doing the stripes and carrying all those balls of yarn was a bit of a nightmare, but it's a fabulous sweater. And it's still plenty long on her, so I hope she'll still be able to wear it in the Fall.

Phew. I did it. And it feels good.

Wee one is so done with pants. She is in some ultra girly girl phase right now and pants are completely out. I've managed to get her to wear tights under her dresses in the last week, but when she wants to wear a shirt and I insist that she must wear something to cover her derriere, there's only one choice: the twirly skirt I knit her last year. So it is clear that we will be needing more of these skirts.

In the stash I found four balls of all seasons cotton in a pale blue - some Rowan member gift pack - just begging to become another Twirly Skirt. I had to dig harder to find my old copy of the pattern though. It's the Barefoot Knits Twirly Skirt but it wasn't ever in the book (which, itself is now, sadly, out of print). The skirt pattern has, however, recently been posted as a free pattern (available in pdf format) on their website. Hooray! It is a super easy and fun knit - just a bit boring with all the stockinette.

I'm pretty sure that my four balls of asc won't be enough to finish the size 4 skirt I'm making, so I'm planning on doing the last tier of the skirt in some navy handknit dk I discovered in the stash near the asc. Also found in the stash: some pinky pink cotton glace for yet another version of the skirt. And if I can make it to the back of the closet - to the back stash - I bet I can find even more twirly skirts waiting to be made!

I'm so excited about this!! If only the kids and I can stay healthy, I'm going to get back to my quilts. (Admission: I've actually been using my ugly picnic quilt - made from my homelier fat quarters - to sleep under while I've been sick, despite the fact that about 20% of it hasn't been quilted yet and is still pinned together. It's cozy though!)