He has also started to pretend to knit much more. I keep a small ball of yarn around just for him and a crochet hook. He wraps the yarn around the hook and stabs the ball of yarn. Every time I beam with pride and wonder if I will be able to pass along my craft knowledge or will gender stereotypes get in the way. Or maybe he will not care for crafting at all. In the meantime I enjoy watching him play.

I have been drawing long legged cats in the margins of my notebook for over a year now. Always telling myself they would make a great toy. I am sure my coworkers thought I was crazy.

But I am very happy with the way this drawing translated into yarn. At 22 inches tall he is by far my tallest toy to date but because he is so skinny it only took 380 yards of yarn to make him.

Honesty the skinny legs are what kept me from making him for so long. But when I finally started knitting them they flew by. I really think the stripe pattern on the pants took a lot of the stress away. After all it is much easier to count 99 rows when you know it is only 33 stripes.

Available for $6.00

Care to join me? I have two fresh toy patterns coming out in the next few weeks and I already have a few more in the works for later this summer.

As a special treat Robyn and I are offering a give away on her blog. Just check out her post and tweet, post on facebook and comment to enter.

Speaking of facebook. Full of Fluff now has a facebook page. The first 200 likers will get a coupon good toward any purchase in my ravelry store.

Back in January of last year my little dude was learning to crawl and kept getting his toes stuck in the hem of his pants legs. I started to dream up pants for the spring for him, ones that I could fold up for extra cushioning at the knees and fold back down when he was sitting still.

Now that we are quickly approaching his second birthday and I wonder what sitting still is I finally made the pants. And to my amazement the roll up, button up pants idea works even better on an older child who is likely to run through mud puddles and then be upset his pants are wet.

The pants are made with Rowan Denim a very unique yarn in many respects. The yarn is somewhat stiff when worked but washes to something more soft to the touch. What really makes it different is the fact that the purposefully shrinks in the wash – just like real jeans. This added an extra challenge for designing and hours of more math in the long run. But you guys will not have to do that math. Don’t worry if you want to substitute yarn either – directions are given for yarns that do not shrink in the pattern.

Oh and the best part? It is 100% free. Just visit the Petite Purls website.

Miss Lu was very interested in her sweater.

But what is a photo shoot without a little tears right?

As cute as they are in the sweaters I think they were even cuter without them.

Lets start the list of signs this shoot would not bode well:
1. My boy did not get a good nap in that morning, most of his nap was on the 45min car ride over to Brandy’s place.
2. Brandy’s AC broke and the temperature was in the mid 90s that day.
3. Brandy’s eldest was just not having a good day. It is tough being a toddler.
4. I am still getting used to my new camera. I packed my 50mm lens because it is fast but it only had manual focus on my camera body.

Well the first thing you might need to know is that at least my half of the baby duo does not wear hats. Ever. That is why I developed my Harper’s Hood pattern after all. Brandy’s LG was more willing by a hair. So I did manage to get a single shot of LG in the hat. It was ripped off about .4 seconds later.

So we gave up on acutely having pictures of the kids wearing hats. Maybe it would be okay if we had them sitting near the hats or playing with them. Sounds good right? Well it would have been great if there were not much more interesting things in the room like say curtains and electrical outlets.

awww look how nicely they play.

Still playing nicely ignoring the hats until my son wanted to put his fingers in the same outlet as LG. Sigh. A loud smack followed by a crying LG later I am apologizing to Brandy while putting my kid in time out.

Brandy stayed cool the whole time despite the fact I think all 3 kids were crying at this point. Putting the hats on her older daughter stopped one set of tears.

And I even got brandy to put on a hat herself.

Maybe we would have better luck outside on a picnic blanket? Oh wait they can both crawl.

Brandy went all out and got a cake in Petite Purls colors for the kids to eat with the hats near by. Sounds nice right? While my kid did not appreciate the cake LG did. Wow.

So I do not think we got a good photo in the bunch. But it was fun, or at least funny, in a frustrating way.

A few months ago I sent co-editors Brandy and Allegra a goofy tweet saying they should knit party hats to celebrate. I almost immediately got an e-mail asking me if I would be willing to design the hat in Petite Purls colors. No problem!

Photo by Brandy Fortune

I had no problem envisioning how to make a crocheted hats – spots and a shell edge seemed like a must. But they wanted a knit hat too. So I spent far too much time trying to make the same crocheted hat into knit. Nothing looked right. I must have swatched 5-6 times. Then I remembered something I already knew. Knit and crochet are different. Trying to design the same way for both crafts just will not work.

Photo by Brandy Fortune

So out went the shells and spots and in came a ruffled edge and french knots to quilt the layers together (a step that the stiffer crocheted fabric did not need). The knit hat was also worked differently. For the crocheted hat you started at the tip of the hat and increased while for the knit it made more sense to start at the base of the hat and decrease on the way up.

Photo by Brandy Fortune

It was a fun challenge. I hope you guys enjoy the patterns. And they are free!

Celebrate – Knit | Celebrate – Crochet

Later I will share how this was the most redonkulous photo shoot ever.

Available for $5.00 via ravelry.

There is just something about kids and fair isle caps particularly ones with ear flaps. It is just so classic and so right. I wanted to make a modern twist on the classic caps with bright colors but still simple.

The first time I knit this hat it was for my nephew. Ian, seen here, loves hats in a way that if he was an adult would be called obsessive. He always wants to have a hat on his head and would like others to have one on too thank-you-very-much. It felt right when my husband suggested naming the hat after an island because of the fair isle. To my knowledge Ian has one been to one island – St Augustine. Perfect.

Available for $5.00 via ravelry.