I cut the triangles out with the top edge along the fold of the fabric, so they’re double sided. They’ll probably flip around when the wind blows them so I wanted them to be pretty on both sides. I folded them with the wrong sides together and sewed along the edges using the rolled hem stitch on my serger. (side note: My husband is awesome. When I told him I was sewing the flags he said, “You’re not sewing, you’re overlocking.”) The letters are cut from white felt and I attached them with fabric glue.

I attached them all together by sewing a length of rick-rack along the top edge. I can’t wait to hang them up for her party!

Now that she’s nearly 2, Sesame is getting to be quite helpful around the house. At least she thinks she’s helping. Here she’s trying to wash the dishes. She mostly just got water all over. Notice where she’s standing- not on the platform of her learning tower, but on the rail. The kid is fearless.

She’s wearing some shorts that I just finished knitting. She wears a wool soaker (or woolly as we call them) at night so these will be nice for the summer. They’re a short version of the Perfection Pants that I’ve knitted before. I used one skein of Cascade 220 Quatro that I had left over from a cardigan I knitted. I embroidered some flowers to make them a little cuter and added some extra stitches in the bind-off of the cuffs so it made a little ruffle. It just needs a drawstring. They were falling off of her when I took this picture- her little bottom is not really so square shaped.

I love this little dress! Like everything I’ve knit recently, it’s making wasn’t without a near-disaster. It was almost ruined when I put it on the little ungrateful toddler and she had a screaming fit and yanked at it so hard that she totally stretched out the buttonholes and I was afraid for the hand-stitching. Luckily it survived (with lots of buttonhole reinforcement) but not until I took a time-out from her,’ though lying down on my comfy bed while’ mentally fixing I dress I just finished making and trying to tune out the sobs of “mamaaa, mamaaa” and little toddler fists pounding on my door is not very relaxing.

I shouldn’t have been too surprised. She was crying just seconds before I took this picture, I thought she was going to ruin this sweater with the yanking at the neckline the first time I put it on her and she even had a fit when I first made her wear this little cardigan and it’s made of cashmere and silk! What a terrible mom I am. She doesn’t cry about new store bought clothes so I’m trying really hard to not take this personally. At least she gets over it and is usually more cooperative by the second wearing.

The pattern is the Two Summer Sundressand it’s pretty darn clever. The straps can uncross to add a little more length and the straps have 2 buttonholes too. This one can grow with the kid. The yarn is Cascade 220 Superwash so the whole thing can go in the washer. I will definitely make more of these, although I may have to try machine sewing my knitting, something I’ve been avoiding. I hand-sewed the skirt to the bodice but it was a little tedious.

Finally, a sunny day and a willing husband! Here are pictures of the cardigan I finished last month. I would show you my face but it was sunny and I’m all squinty. I love it (the cardigan, not the squinty face). It’s so simple and cute and warm but not too warm. It’s just a basic top-down raglan and I saw the horseshoe lace pattern on this cardigan and loved it so I added it to mine. I wasn’t sure how I wanted to close it so I employed the knit-now, decide-later method and as it turns out, I can just shove the buttons through the knitting so no buttonholes are necessary. Simple and easy.

The best part?’ I got this fabulous hand-painted yarn (blue mountain fiber arts icelandic) in a yarn swap! The color in the first pic is more accurate. Someone took my crap and I got this. It’s hard to imagine it being someone’s crap but then again, that’s probably what someone is saying about my unwanted yarn.

One more thing I love- signs of spring!! It really is coming.

Back at home, the evidence that seseme is now a toddler is mounting. Oh, it’s mostly a joy but when I see her climbing up onto the dining room table, I miss the days when she’d stay put on a blanket on the floor.

Her sweater is finished and she actually got to wear it. If you look closely you can see that it’s dirty because not only did I let her wear it, I also let her (gasp) eat in it. I love it and it looks really cute on her though that’s nearly impossible to photograph. It’s the Toddler Tunic by Staci Perry (ravelry) and all I changed was to lengthen the seed stitch areas at the edges and I added some flowers using scrap yarn from this stash.

I knit the sweater with recycled yarn from a huge J. Crew cotton sweater that I found at the bins. It was such a huge sweater that I could probably knit myself a matching sweater but I’m not that kind of mom. The yarn was really annoying to knit with because it’s a bunch of tiny threads that aren’t plied together. Several times I came across a spot where a few strands were broken but I just ignored it and kept knitting. I’m sure that if I throw it in the washer, some of those ends will start to poke out but she’s only going to be able to wear it for this one season so I think it’ll be okay.

Even sesame got into the harvest spirit and sampled several apples. She isn’t a big fan of them at home but food is often more exciting when we’re someplace new.

Look! It’s her ruffly striped cardigan I knitted at the beginning of the year. It’s still a little big but totally wearable if I roll up the sleeves. Every time I pick her up I just want to squeeze her and never put her down because it’s so soft.

Crafty Wonderland was fun and successful. Check out all these coffee sleeves I made for the show! I don’t have nearly this many left over so it was a good day.

Now that the show is over, I’ve been working on my knitting projects. Mike’s sweater still looks like a giant mound of yarn but there really is a nearly completed cardigan in there! I knit this adorable sweater for the baby toddler but it’s not quite done so I’ll wait to show you the whole thing.

I’ve finally written up a pattern for my eyelet skirty (or is it skirtie?) that I’ve been showing you lately. It’s more of a guide than a pattern but it’s free and I don’t think any of you will have any trouble with it. Happy knitting!

The pattern is below but I’ve also made a pdf that you can download and print. You can get that right here!

I knit this as an addition to a knit soaker (diaper cover) but have included a description of how to adapt it to be just a skirt for your little one.

To knit the skirt attached to a diaper cover:

1.First knit the soaker of your choice.I used the curly purly soaker pattern.

2.Using a circular needle the size that you used for the body of the soaker, pick up a row of stitches just below the ribbing, or about 2 inches below the top of the soaker.(Note: This is much easier if you purl the row after the ribbing when you’re knitting the soaker.Then use the purl bumps as your guide when picking up the stitches.)

3.Row 1: Join to knit in the round and *K1, yo* around.This doubles the number of stitches on your needle and adds fullness to your skirt.

4.Knit for 5 rounds.Next round (eyelet round): *K2tog, yo* around.

5.Repeat these 6 rounds until your skirt measures approximately ‘ the desired length.

6.Change to needles one size larger than those you’ve been using.This will add a little more fullness to the bottom portion of the skirt.Continue in pattern until skirt is almost the desired length.End with eyelet round.

7.Knit around

*K2tog, yo* around

Repeat these 2 rounds one more time. (Ending with eyelet rounds close together prevents the hem from rolling)

Bind off.

Note: If desired, knit stripes of a different color as often as you’d like.Also, the frequency of the eyelet row is not essential.

To knit the skirt alone:

1.Knit a gauge swatch with your desired yarn and determine how many stitches per inch you have.

2.Measure around your baby’s waist.Multiply your stitches per inch by the number of inches your baby’s waist measures.Round this number to the nearest multiple of 4.This is the number of stitches you will cast on.

3.Using a needle sized 1-2 sizes smaller than you used on your swatch, cast on desired number of stitches and *K2, P2* around for approximately 2 inches.

4.Switch to main needles and knit skirt, beginning with the K1, yo round in #3 in the above directions.

Sesame won’t eat strawberries if I offer them to her at mealtimes while she’s in her high chair, but when she could pick them herself, she tried to eat them all! Despite her face in the last picture, she really liked them and amazingly most of the mess managed to stay off of her clothes.

I made fabulous strawberry shortcakes for dessert tonight. I had some creme fraiche in the fridge so I mixed some brown sugar with it and used that instead of whipped cream. Add some fresh-from-the-oven biscuits and fresh-from-the-garden berries and it was a winner!

I’ve been knitting this mess for a while and I finally have all the pieces done. After knitting this a while back, I didn’t think I’d do it again but, well, a knitted toy is hard to resist. All these pieces will be this cute little crab (Ravelry)! That’s the body, 8 legs, 2 claws and 2 eye stalks that you’re looking at. It’s for baby Lucas, whose mother is Cindy, one of my best friends but they live all the way in El Salvador so I don’t see her often enough. I hope the little cutie likes it.

The pattern isn’t written too well and is quite fiddly, for lack of a better word, but I’ll share more about that later. Speaking of patterns, I’m going to write up my loose pattern for the soaker skirt since several have asked for it. Look for that soon! In other housekeeping news, I’m hoping to add some stuff to my shop soon. With all the birthday madness, and my job starting full time next week (eek!) I have been neglecting it a little.

For the birthday extravaganza Mike and I had 6 out of town relatives come to visit. It was a little crazy but they did not all stay with us so it was manageable. Sesame was a trooper and didn’t even seem to get too overwhelmed!

Here are some pictures.

This is part of her birthday gift. I embroidered a really cool design that I’ll show you more of when it’s washed and ironed. It’s going to be a pillow for her since she has developed a sudden love of carrying pillows around.

This is her cupcake cake! I made 4 dozen cupcakes and made this cute little picnic scene. My mom and Mike made the fondant blanket and I did all the grass piping. My hand got really tired but the effect was worth it. I think they’re the cutest cupcakes I’ve ever made!
The birthday girl modeling her skirt. She had so much fun at her party! I’m so happy that we avoided the overwhelmed, screaming baby syndrome that seems to happen rather frequently at 1st birthday parties.

Proof of all the out-of-towners. This is my stepmom, dad, brother, Mike, me, uncle, cousin and mom. Whew! That’s a lot of visitors for 1 short weekend!

This is how we all felt after the party. I think that finally today I am caught up on sleep. I haven’t knitted in over a week and I have a lot to catch up on but for now, I’m just happy and thankful for a truly blessed year with my little one.

My knitting has taken a bit of a back seat since it’s been so warm but I’ve been doing some other crafting (not just for my shop) and I do have some knitting to show.

I’m still working on Mike’s sweater. It’s coming along but I’m not in a big hurry to finish it since this is the wrong season for wearing a wool sweater. It’s been in the planning stages for so long (a year!) that I just want to get it done so I’ll keep at it.

I’m knitting Avast from Knitty but neither Mike nor I liked the cable at the bottom so he picked this one out instead. Well, if I’m being honest, this was his second choice but I like it better than his first choice and since I’m the one who has to knit it, well, you know the story.

I have been sewing too! I’m really proud of this project.

Now that sesame is getting bigger, I can no longer fit all her shoes, socks, hats, pants and pajamas all in one dresser drawer! Her clothes are getting bigger right along with her. Shocking, I know. So I’ve had to do some rearranging and her room needs more storage space. I have this hanging organizer for her diapers and I really like it so I set out to recreate it in way cooler fabrics.

It was a lot of work to figure it out but It turned out great! I took a lot of notes and pictures along the way so I’m hoping to write up a tutorial for it. Let me know if you’d be interested and I’ll do it sooner rather than later.

Also on the sesame front, I made her the cutest little skirtie! It’s a wool diaper cover with a ruffly skirt knitted onto it.

The soaker pattern I used was the curly purly pattern. After it was done, I picked up a row of stitches about 2 inches below the top and knitted the skirt part.

The pink yarn is Lambs Pride Worsted and the grey is a combination of Eco Wool left over from my Hemlock Ring Blanket and some grey Wool of the Andes that I had laying around.

The bunny ears are cute but the headwear I’m most fond of is this cute little bonnet I knitted for sesame. She even seemed to like wearing it!

The pattern is from Dale of Norway’s pattern book #142. It’s the bonnet from pattern 14201, the eyelet lace layette set. (ravelry) I used one ball of Rowan cashcotton and size 2 needles. I knit the 9-12 month size and had to do some math because my gauge was different. It took two tries because the first bonnet was too small but luckily it was a quick knit so she was able to wear it today! I probably only have a few years that’ll I be able to put Easter bonnets on her so I need to take advantage of all of them.

Do you know what is good? Baby socks. They’re little and cute, super fast to knit and they use up those little balls of leftover sock yarn that never seem to go away. I knit these for the sesame babe and chose a twisting rib pattern because, well, her socks twist around whether I want them to or not. This way, when they twist around her foot, maybe they’ll look like they’re supposed to be doing that. They also have some some ribbing on the top of the foot to help them stay on. She still pulls them off in 2 seconds but they look darn cute for those 2 seconds.

Know what else is good? I actually wrote up the pattern and you can download the pdf here!

Here are the details. Well, some of them.

These socks are a bit big for my 9 month old but not so big that she can’t wear them now. I think they’ll fit her for a while.

The directions are written for the magic loop, or 2 circular method because that’s how I knit socks. They’re toe-up and have a heel flap because I like heel flaps better than short rows. They’re toe up so that you can use up every last bit of those scraps of sock yarn you know you have lying around. The last thing I need is to attempt to use up my tiny ball of sock yarn, only to have an even tinier ball of sock yarn leftover. That’s not cool.

Know what is cool? My baby is asleep now. Thank the heavens. Oh yeah, a free pattern for my lovely readers is pretty cool too. Did I mention you can download it?