Happy Halloween -or- LOOK! I have 3 kids!

I know, Maria gets a lot of the face time on this blog, but let's be honest--she's small and therefore much more fun to knit for. But here's a good chance to brag on my boys--look how heroic they are! In case you're curious and happen to be living under a rock (or aren't glued to PBS like we are), Henry and Oscar are dressed up as SuperWhy. And Maria's a clown. Which was (not) surprisingly easy to pull together using random clothes from her closet. *Note the cute knitted pants, hee hee*

Oh, and Maria's bucket is a prime example of 3 kids, 2 halloween buckets. (See? She doesn't ALWAYS get all the breaks...) Luckily we go through a LOT of ice cream in this house.

In other news... My friend Heather showed me how to crochet last week. So now I'm making Maria some pants. It's pretty slow-going... my eyes aren't used to identifying crochet stitches. Half the time I don't know what I'm looking at. I've had to rip back a considerable amount 3 or 4 times. I think this is it though... I may actually finish these pants by the weekend. I'm using the same yarn I used in her birthday dress, coincidentally, because I had TONS of it. :o) Oh, and based on the Morning Glory Longie pattern from Ladybugz.

It's done when it's due!

The littlest Biesanz turned 2 yesterday! Isn't that weird? Or am I the only one that thinks that's weird?

Anyway, I knit her a dress (how could I not?) for the occassion. I wasn't sure if I was going to finish, but alas, I was weaving in those ends less than an hour before the first party guest arrived. And as always, I heaved a big sigh of relief to find out that Maria would actual wear the fruits of my labors. You know how kids are.

Now for the technical stuff... I didn't have a pattern I just cast on for the straps, and when I found out they were long enough.* I cast on an amount of stitchest between them and then started increasing to a point that I thought would work,* and then continued around until I thought the length looked good. Oh! The top part is all in seed stitch. Then I switched yarns (I was using Three Irish Girls "Elsbeth" on lindon merino, btw. 1 skein of solid, a little more than 1 of the pink...). I knit in stockinette increasing every once in awhile until I thought the length looked right* and switched back to the solid for a seed stitch cuff. Voila!

I know, clearly I should not quit my day job and become a pattern writer just yet.

*I was wrong and had to fix it.

I blame Ravelry.

For my lack of upkeep on this blog. Man, that site is awesome! So far my favorite things to do are to look up a yarn in my stash and see what in the heck other people are doing with it. I may actually work my way through my stash one of these days. AH HA HA HA HA!

So my daughter's 2nd birthday is Wednesday. I can hardly believe it. (Insert "my how time flies" remarks here.) And the best part is I just may finish knitting the little dress/jumper I plan for her to wear! Because I am a glutten for punishment: 2 year old + hand knit wool dress = Good Idea, no?

More good news: I am *almost* finished knitting longies for this co-op I volunteered for. What was I thinking? Oh yeah, $$ for more yarn, that's right. While it was fun to do, I can't wait to get back to knitting just for me and my family. OOH! Which reminds me of some completely voluntary knitting I did for a friend. Check out these cute longies. They're totally inspired by this gal I know online, Sarah, (who was inspired by Crankypants.) She's sarahspins on Ravelry, check her out. She's got really cute stuff.

Off to finish the birthday suit. Hee hee!

My little UO model...

Doesn't it look like she's posing for the Urban Outfitter catalog?

I am really excited about how this hat turned out. And the good news is that Maria likes it too (phew!) I LOVE how the yarn turned out. There's absolutely no pooling or lightening bolts or anything. I would've posted pictures sooner, but who knew it would've taken THAT long to weave in a couple of measley ends?

RaVeLrY! Whoot!

I'm in! I'm in! I got my invite Sunday--a whole day earlier than I was suspecting. Unfortunately I was totally pukey and couldn't hardly stand to sit at the computer to putz around. Gr. I made up for lost time today though.

In other news, I just about finished Maria's hat. I decided it needs a little bobble or something on the top, so I'm going to do that tonight.

OMG, I'm awesome!

Don't you just love the feeling of success? I was dyeing some yarn yesterday, and had 1/2 a skein leftover, taunting me. Which would've been okay, except I had a dozen bottles of dye staring me in the face, DARING me to try something new. So I did. And I'm so glad. Because check this out:

I know my daughter's cute, but do you see the pretty yarn she's modeling for me?

It's going to be a little hat for her. If there's enough, I'm just not sure.

Oh, and before you think I am just the world's cockiest gal, I will admit to have frogged back this hat about 7 times now. This is what I get for casting on at 10:30 at night, with no pattern. Ah well, such is life...

I was unsupervised...

...I had a real good time. I dyed some yarn. Some of it didn't turn out like I had hoped. I was trying to copy a colorway I did, "Soggy Granola" (on the left.) I think the fact that Soggy Granola was a happy accident in the first place should have been a clue. But whatever. Someone asked if I could dye them a skein, so I gave it a shot. My 2nd take on S. G. didn't turn out the same. Shocking, since I have so much dyeing experience. (HA HA HA!) At first I thought it looked like doo-doo, but now that it's been reskeined, it's actually really growing on me, and I think it's pretty dang cute. Here is is on 3-ply purewool:

I also tried something new, to me anyway. That's also drying at the moment. The jury is still out. I seem to be losing a lot of color down the drain. Must review how to dye yarn...

And for anybody who's keeping track, there's only like 824 people in front of me for Ravelry! Whoot!

only 1627 people in front of me!

Oh my gosh. Of course I'm talking about Ravelry. I'm almost in!! So this is my half-assed attempt to get my blog up and rolling before I'm lost to ravelry for good. Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!!