Socks for Max

I finished Max’s second sock, and he looooooves them.

I think he’s just been waiting for me to finish them. He liked trying them on while they were on the needles, and this morning when I asked him if he wanted to try on his new socks, he practically launched himself onto the sofa beside me.

They came out a little big for him – but that’s fine. His feet are obviously not done growing. It’s just as well, really, the bindoff is a little tight for the ribbing. I used a suspended bindoff because it claims to be elastic and therefore perfect for finishing off ribbing (according to the Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Needlework) but it’s still a bit tight. How do the cool kids finish off their ribbing?

Anyway, while attempting to photograph both of his feet together, I noticed a run (!) in the ribbing on one sock. Is it possible to drop a stitch after binding off?!?!? Logically, I assume that I missed a stitch while working the bindoff. I stole the sock from his foot (over his protests) and retrieved the stitch with my trusty F hook while Max stood by the sofa bouncing impatiently and repeating “Sock pleeeeeeeease!” (Technically, it was “oksh eeeeeeeee”) and tried to take it from me while I was retrieving said dropped stitch. -_- Anyway, I have no idea how to incorporate a dropped stitch into something I’ve already bound off and have no intention of un-binding and reworking, so I just sewed the loop (securely!) to the inside of the bound-off edge where it is now behaving itself.

He won’t give the socks back.

Happy, Happy Birthday!

Max’s birthday is this week, and we had a party for him over the weekend. Said party gave me the opportunity to exercise one of my other creative interests – cake decorating! (Yay!) Using nothing but common cooking pans, I created a three-dimensional train for my vehicle-loving little boy. Here you can see how pieces from loaf pans, and a cupcake went together to form the train:

And here you can see how I finished it up. Yay, creative cake decorating!

In yarny news, I’m knitting Max a pair of socks to match the striped baby socks. I just sized the pattern up, and it looks very nice (Max likes socks, so he’s excited. I think it might be hereditary, Greg loves new socks, as well).

The second sock is halfway finished, so we’ve got good odds to finish the pair before this baby gets here!

The hat is done!

And it’s ridiculously cute. See?

Hopefully it won’t be too long before I can post pictures of it encompassing the head of a baby. I had to make up my own pattern to get exactly what I wanted, and it wasn’t that hard to do! (As any accomplished knitter…could have told you.) I’m very proud of it, though, because it means that I’m getting better at the knitting, and the knitting patterns, and the knitting pattern writing. Which is fun.

Knit your own Magic Stripes Ribbed Newborn hat, using the pattern here!