During the final months of 2003, new businesses sprang up in this less-frequented section of the neighborhood to fill a niche in the children's marketplace.

Nigel Who?, a baby knitwear line, Black Eyed Pete's, a children's fashion and furnishing shop, and Arthouse Kids, a children's art studio, have set up shop on Lincoln Avenue. This is in addition to Freckles Children's Boutique and Little Things for Children, which have been part of the avenue for several years.

Ronnie Bogle, who launched his clothing label Nigel Who? eight years ago for a thesis project at San José State University, opened his Lincoln Avenue business after Thanksgiving. Prior to that his business was strictly Internet-based. Bogle uses a computer to design sweater patterns, and an automated machine knits them overnight, he said.

"I'm a Silicon Valley geek," Bogle said. "When I'm not doing our website, I'm designing clothes [on the computer]."

Bogle said a normal knitter would need a week to make a sweater that his machine completes overnight. The savings in labor can be passed to the customer, he said. Instead of charging $150 for a handknit sweater, a Nigel Who? baby sweater and scarf cost $40.

But clothes are just the beginning of the store.

"We don't bill ourselves as a boutique," Bogle said.

Bogle envisions a new concept in home-accessories shopping: the "creative living" showroom. He plans to sell everything from sofas to dishwashers and coffeemakers, most designed by Bay Area artists.

Bogle has also teamed up with another new business in the Coe Avenue area, contracting with Black Eyed Pete's to create exclusively designed apparel.

Owner Toni Guel said her daughter Jody White suggested they start a baby company after she had a baby and enjoyed choosing baby accessories.

Her daughter came up with the name after seeing an art character named Pete with a black eye.

Until Guel went to a trade show and received numerous compliments on the name, she wasn't sure the name would work.

The mother and daughter team wanted a boutique that featured unique items that weren't trendy or sold in megastores, she said.

Guel said Bogle asked if she wanted to sell his baby sweaters, which she hangs in the windows.

"The sweaters are so cute and darling," she said. "We're willing to put everything cute in our store."

Like Bogle, she also wants to support the local community, so much of the artwork and photography Black Eyed Pete's sells comes from local artists, she said.

"We're so fortunate to be in Willow Glen," Guel said, adding that she didn't realize how popular businesses that catered to children were on Lincoln Avenue.

Next door to Black Eyed Pete's, two art teachers are opening their own studio called Arthouse Kids. Marylea Adams and Julie Stover have been teaching their own art curriculum in their homes and neighborhood schools for three years.

Adams combined her background in art history with Stover's art education degree to provide instruction at preschools, after-school programs and homeschool groups.

The demand for their classes grew, so they decided to open a studio,. expanding their program.

"It's cool for kids to have the experience of working in a real studio," Adams said.

Arthouse Kids will open Jan. 20 and will offer eight-week drawing, painting, sculpture classes for elementary children, drawing, painting, jewelry-design and poetry-writing classes for junior and high school youth and jewelry design, mosaic and water color classes for adults.

One of the unique things the two women do is teach preschool children about art history's great masters.

"People are so skeptical that 2-year-olds can remember [an art history lesson]," Stover said. "But kids are amazing."

Yet as these stores open their doors, others are saying goodbye to the neighborhood.

The French Quarters, which sold off-beat home furnishings, next to Hicklebee's Childrens Books, closed its doors in late December. In its place is a sign notifying shoppers that a garden store plans to open in mid-January.

The trendy boutique Gypsy Girlz on Lincoln Avenue near the Taiwan Restaurant is also closing its doors.

The store opened in October 2002, targeting "the younger crowd" and also carried apparel and jewelry with an "Asian influence and subculture," owner Hanh Luong said.

But she doesn't fault the economy, which she said is "bouncing back." She said it's the malls that did her in. "With all the malls, people are not shopping in the neighborhood anymore. When we first opened the economy was worse, but we did better."

She said she originally chose Willow Glen because there were not many stores catering to young people. But that has changed with more diversity in the malls.