P.S.

KnitPicks has released the Santa hat pattern I wrote up for them along with all the other Sheldon costumes. It's a free pattern. If you have a tiny head that needs a Santa hat this Christmas, go get your knit on!

KnitPicks suggests fingering weight for this hat... when I did Knit Knack's hat almost 3 years ago, I used a bulky weight yarn (and fewer stitches, obviously...) which gave it an oversized look that I really liked. Go nuts. Gimme a shout if you make one... I want to see who you put it on!

Actober Occomplishments

We're barely halfway through my favorite month of the year, and already I think it's been the most eventful half-month I've had in a long time.

My birthday was October 3, the same day as sock club's Socktober to Dye For.

19 industrious ladies plus my mom, aunt, Dani, Lise, Tobie and myself had a fantastic day mixing dyes, painting yarn, and trying not to be blown over by the wind. It was a gorgeous day for dyeing.

There were so many beautiful autumn colors painted into yarns that day. I had to be very diligent not to steal all any of them. Seriously. So much fun.

Then on October 8, my sand volleyball team (Sandy Pants) played in the fall tournament. It was cold and wet (but it had fortunately stopped raining) and our toes froze in the sand, but we won two straight games to win the whole tournament! Booyah! It was ridiculously fun, and I can't wait for April so we can start all over again.

October 10th was the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Walk for Kids, and I walked with my friends Scott & Joy for their daughter's memorial Find A Voice Fund. Our team raised over $9,500 toward purchasing a device to allow a child without a voice to be able to communicate with his loved ones. We walked three miles around Coney Island with thousands of other Cincinnatians trying to raise money for various causes. It was a great day and I was happy to be a part of such a great cause.

Then on October 11, I bent over, and all my activity ceased. I've spent the last week flat on my back with sciatic issues that I haven't dealt with for eight years or more. Five days later I'm feeling well enough to sit in a chair and do laundry and actually knit (!), and I'm planning on going to sock club in the morning. I'm not back to 100% yet, but I'm doing much better. The body sure knows how to get a girl to slow down!

Hope your October has been exciting as well, and hopefully less painful. Cheers!

Happy Birthday, Hallie!

My littlest niece Hallie turns one year old today!

To celebrate, of course she gets her first birthday sweater! This is the Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman, knitted in Creatively Dyed Yarn's worsted weight merino, color Paisley. I LOVE the colors in this yarn, and the way it knits up all squinchy. This is the second EZ sweater I've knit for Hallie... I wonder how many other great Zimmerman patterns I'll try out for her!

I wish you could squeeze it. So squinchy!

The sibling gifts were handmade this time, too. Remember Maggie's b-day sweater? Here's the miniature version for her new American Girl Doll, Kit.

(This Kit borrowed from Wendy's daughter for trying-on and a photo shoot. Yes, Wendy, I did it all by myself!!!)


Mom had the perfect buttons in her button box and let me use them. Woo hoo!

This past summer when the west coast Higgins family came to Ohio, Calvin found a tree root growing above the surface out by the playhouse in Mom's backyard, and told me he'd found a CROCODABLE!!! So I figured he needed a croco-dable of his very own to play with.

Pattern is Hannah Kaminsky's Baby Alligator free amigurumi pattern. I used odds and ends of Cascade 220 from my stash! He turned out adora-dable!

Lots of love to all the Higgins kids... and their parents, too! Hope you have a happy first birthday, Hallie!

That Time Of Year

So, it's that time of year again. The blog is four years old. The yarn store where I work and teach classes (Yarns & Fabrications... check out the new blog!) is four years old. Sock club is four years old. And I will be four years old on Saturday. No, wait, sorry, I'm a little bit older than that. But it's a good time of year. I love October. The weather is perfect, the scenery is beautiful, and a lot of my favorite things happen around this time.

A couple weeks ago was the Wool Gathering in Yellow Springs. I got to help set up for the show and work with Wendy on Sunday. We had a blast meeting all sorts of wonderful, creative, new friends, and seeing a bunch of great people we knew. Wendy took a bunch of fantastic pictures which you can see on her blog.

I was a particular fan of this goat. He wanted to tell us something, but couldn't stop chewing long enough to spit it out.

I may have stumbled into some sock yarn, but there's no photographic evidence. Let the record show I was very well behaved at this year's Wool Gathering. (Yarn is from Knitted To A T by Tonia Graves, 400 yards, merino/nylon blend, colorway is Chocolate Covered Cherry... yum.)

Looking forward, things are just as awesome.

This Saturday we're having a SOCKTOBER TO DYE FOR!!! (James Bond would be so proud.) Last April, sock club had a Sockstravaganza where everybody got to dye skeins and flats of sock yarn, and we're doing it again this Saturday! We've got 50 skeins, 10 flats, 20 sock clubbers, one mom, one aunt, two store supervisors, one assistant, and one birthday girl. It's going to be one crazy day! I can't wait to show you pictures next week.