I made this for myself because I tried on the shop sample at Black Sheep Wool Company and it was adorable and I can’t resist Baby Cashmerino yarn, and the sample fit beautifully. Unfortunately, mine turned out too big. It was easy to make, with an easily memorized vine and leaf pattern. It made me want to venture out and try more lace and more cables!

Perhaps some larger-headed friend will get this for xmas, because it’s done now and I can’t bear the thought of stitching elastic into the band.

I made these for a co-worker who is expecting her baby boy, like, yesterday already!!

I followed this pattern by Saartje.

I used Koigu and size 2 or 3 needles. I made some silly mistakes.

I swear to you that I have been lucky with this pattern before.  I’ve made these slippers SIX other times. The last two times were red and black ones for Zach and lime green ones for the Boogedy.

But this time I did three things wrong (at least).

* I forgot to add an extra row for wide feet.

* I did something to make the purple opening all crookedy.

* I must have missed another row that creates the lip to hold them on, because they just fall right off.

What does one do with adorable but ill-fitting footwear?

Also, since I made these for Zach as a father’s day present, but didn’t finish them til October, would I get credit for making a christmas present when I finish the replacement pair?

(I borrowed this photo from the Crystal Palace Website, where you can see all the lovely colorways of Mochi Plus self-striping yarn)

I bought this gorgeous yarn at Black Sheep Wool Co. months ago. I knitted my favorite baby hat design.

It is so hideous that I couldn’t give it to the intended new mommy. I should have used one of their other colors!

I was reminded of this experience when Jane Brocket published this too-true  post about the beauty of handpainted yarn…before it gets knitted up!

Please don’t go saying that this hat is beautiful. SOMEHOW, it is just marvelously photogenic, but I know you’d agree that in real life, it’s atrocious.

Look at what I made for Zach!

I sewed this nifty bag by following the directions (if not the exact measurements) set forth in this wonderful and easy-to-understand tutorial at mmmcrafts by Larissa! I took better photos of this when I made the bag, but can’t find the pictures, and now the bag is dingy from use, so you’ll have to put up with these lame photos.

I also sewed these dolphin pantaloons in clever Thai-wrap styling (also called fisherman pants). Craig came over wearing a pair of pants in this style and I liked them so much that I invited myself to his house and we each sewed a pair using his pants as a pattern.

These are really flattering on him. I wish I had captured that!

These photos were taken in Florida when we were vacationing. Today it is the first rainy, cold day of fall, and I’m remembering the warmth!

When we were on vacation in Florida, the Boogedy convinced his dad that we ALL needed pink sparkle toes, or “toe-ees” as he says.

The funniest part is that I put a topcoat on, and Zach COULD NOT get it off, even with nail polish remover. He got teased on the beach by his old beach buddies!

Here’s a sweet beach photo. You’ll have to imagine the sparkle toe-ees that made them:

I made up a really quick, simple pattern for these little guys. I’ll be teaching a class at the Black Sheep Wool Company here in Salt Lake in October if you must know how to make one! See the pink and green fellas, featured on the yarn shop’s homepage!

Here is a rather terrible photo of a delicious dessert I had this weekend.

Sunberry frozen yogurt garnished with ground cherries (all berries home grown)and black sesame seeds.  Without the benefit of an ice-cream maker, this was made using the tried-and-true method of a baggie full of yogurt inside a big bag of ice and salt. We loved this all-natural purple color… but the flash turned the ground cherries yellow gold, and they were really the best shade of chartreuse!!

A friend made this for me on Saturday night after a delicious meal of homemade Som Tam with roasted peanuts (my friends used green tomatoes instead of papaya, since we’re in a temperate zone!), peanut-oil-fried tofu with sea salt, and coconut rice.

We spent two gorgeous weeks in and around Rosemary Beach, Florida. My skin cleared up and I looked 10 years younger. I got a nice tan, but got out of shape just laying about on the beach in a bikini, with my most strenuous activity being playing “Jump Like a Kangaroo!” with my kid in the surf.

After I whine a bit about my 3.8 mile ride to work today, I will regale you with a miserable tale of my 4-day airport adventure. Ok, the ride to work today was grueling. It should have been a piece of cake, it’s been too easy all summer! But leave for two weeks to relax at sea level and suddenly Salt Lake City doesn’t have a lungful of air for a poor commuting biker. Whew. My head hurts.

Ok, the Airport. Here’s how it went. On Thursday afternoon we enjoyed lunch with our friends in Rosemary Beach before heading to the Panama City airport.  We managed to convince the Boogedy that going through airport security was an adventure (rather than the fit it usually causes when he is subjected to a change of shoe status). We checked only our carseat and had our allotted carry-ons carefully arranged, even managing to fit in a brand new life jacket we bought for the little guy down there. Our toiletries were in their plastic ziploc bags, even our dirty closes were folded neatly.

The ticket agent announced that the flight to Memphis was overbooked and so we volunteered to give up our seats in exchange for lots of airfare vouchers plus hotel and food for the night.  It was a kitschy hotel there in Panama City…I’m planning to post pictures separately. It was fun and felt spontaneous and “worth the trouble”, even though we found out that our carseat had lost its tag and was probably living it up in Memphis without us.

We came back to the Airport the next afternoon, returned the carseat the airline had loaned us, and went through security again. This time we were booked to go to Atlanta, but weather was terrible, Atlanta got shut down,  and that flight got so delayed we would have missed our connection to SLC. So we rented a car (on our own dime) and drove back to Rosemary Beach and played with friends and swam in the ocean one last time. We also bought a huge bag of Cajun spiced boiled peanuts…so yummy!!!

The next day we went BACK THROUGH SECURITY (please raise your hand if you’ve done this even once with a 2.5 year old). By this time all the security guys were chuckling with and pitying us. Our flight to Cincinnati was so delayed that we missed our connecting flight to SLC and had to spend the night there. They gave us food vouchers, but no hotels were giving up rooms because of a big jazz festival in town. I couldn’t face the thought of sleeping on the Cincinnati airport floor, though, so we paid for a hotel in the industrial zone beyond the runways.

We got up the next morning at dawn and went back to the airport, where Cincinnati security personnel take their job VERY seriously, and stood in long lines. We finally flew out of there and landed in SLC 20 minutes early, so we had to sit on the tarmac waiting for our gate. In those last 10 minutes of waiting, the Boogedy finally had his only huge airplane nervous breakdown, which ended as soon as we were let out of the plane.

We needed this travel drama so that we would be glad to get home, rather than just wishing we could stay longer on the beach.

The other night we went to an outdoor concert in Seaside. The Boogedy is still singing “Put your hands up!!”.

Today the sky was grey and the water kind of choppy, but he insisted on swimming anyway!