Two more fo's fo' you: Jacques the Sea Turtle and some basic socks. As is usual, I don't get to keep either project. Nuts.

124: Jacques

Jacques is another amigurumi present for a small child, this time for the boy who once fit this sweater.

He is made of Plymouth Galway Worsted, Patons Classic Merino and love. I love him immensely.

125: Laura's socks

Laura asked me to knit some socks for her. So I did! I wish I had started them when she gave me the yarn, because putting the hammer down really spoiled what should have been a beautiful friendship with some gorgeous STR yarn. They're done and I'm happy.

Labels: crochet, fo, toy

One of my co-workers wanted to get back into knitting by making a simple toy. I showed her Knitty and she was off. Unfortunately, she couldn't quite get the hang of the pattern she picked: Bubby. So she bequeathed me the yarn and her pattern print out. Three months later, Bubby was born.

I'm not sure I like him - he's kind of floppy and awkward - but the Boy has taken to him as a stuffed bear representation of himself, so there's that. And I get to give him away - there's that too.

Bonus craftiness:

Today my mom was asking me when I was going to get a new lunchbag for my son, who started full-day school this year. I've been pretty frustrated with the ones I find at the various stores - so I decided to take my courage in my hands and make one.

The pattern is the tote bag from Bend the Rules Sewing. I like the result, but I found the instructions a bit complex for a total newbie like myself, and I had to pick out the lining seams twice. Also, there's a misprint in the fabric requirements, which caused me to cut out more for the straps than I needed. Still, it's an awesome bag. It even has his name tag in it, so no other fashionable kid can walk off with it. I'm happy.

Labels: baby, blake, fo, sew, toy

I made these three amigurumi - one a day - for the three pregnant ladies at the Lettuce Knit sn'b: Jendricks, Craftygrrrl & tapeheads

They're made, as the author of the pattern suggests, with oddments of worsted yarn. In order, we have beige merino from King Cole (bunny hat); pink Phentex (Jumblie); blue and green Lamb's Pride (robot parade); and white Cascade 220 (skull socks o' fury). The eyes are felt, the smiles are embroidery thread, and there is a ribbon on the cactus. The Boy feels that they are BFF - so maybe the babies will be, too.

Bonus knitted thing: if you look at this photo you can see the three squares I knit in less than 24 hours. They're all in the lace wings pattern, and because they're all in the same colour, they all ended up on tapehead's blanket. Fun!

Labels: crochet, fo, friends, lk ladies, toy

Consumed with the cuteness of amigurumi crochet, I used some of my honourarium from Knitty to buy a set of tiny ami patterns. This was a big step for me; I tend to be comically cheap about patterns (more so than for other knitting gear) and I've paid for maybe 6 patterns in my entire crafty career. But I figured that since the money was virtual, why not spend it virtually?

I ordered the pattern in late afternoon, and it arrived after Blake fell asleep. As soon as he woke up, he wanted to see the picture. I showed him the pattern.

"Make that cookie for me," he demanded. And I, feeling the close of summer vacation hot on my heels, decided to indulge him while I could. So we rummaged through my stash, finding brown and white and pink but no vanilla-type colour. Blake refused to consider the possibility of a chocolate cookie. He picked up some leftover grey yarn and, despite my pleas for a more edible colour, his cookie colour scheme was chosen.

He sat down to watch me. "Find something else to do," I ordered. "This is going to take a while." He ignored me, watching my hands slowly crochet the cookie into being. He got into my lap. He played with my stash of safety eyes. He lay on the floor and kicked my chair. Finally, he left to play a few rounds of Toy Story Memory.

And thus a weird amigurami cookie was born of a morning. Blake is completely, totally smitten. It hasn't left his hand since I finished it. Now he's demanding more from the set. Secretly I can't wait.

Labels: blake, crochet, embroidery, fo, toy

I bet Preacher never knew he wanted an Sn'B Nation Rockstar Doll, Palaver style!

palaver with gasmask, c. 1997

preacher, palaver & poet, c. 1997

This doll is largely improvised, but I love a challenge. I passed the deadline for Preachtoberfest, but I was determined to do this one right, no matter how many times I had to knit the head. The embroidery was damned finicky as well. Fun.

my apologies for this garbage picture

Yarn Specs: the grey yarn is Lamb's Pride worsted from the robot knitting of the summer. The white, black & medium brown are all Paton's Classic Merino - white for the Boy's mittens (never used), black for Nic's anarchy cap and brown for Hank Rollins' pants (my first Rockstar Doll!). The beige head & hands are DK King Cole yarn from Blake's bunny hat. The black outline for the suit is Patons Kroy, purchased for Little Spider's no-zombie wristband. The blue tie & flower are my last little bits from my sea silk shawl. Safety eyes & embroidery floss complete our ensemble.

This guy is coming with us to his new home NY this March Break. Good thing I managed to finish him in the last gasp of NaKniSewMo!

Labels: birthday, embroidery, fo, naknisewmo, snb, toy

This is why I need deadlines. As soon as I decided to give Blake his robot for Valentine's Day, it went from completely knit, no finishing to completely finished in 2 nights.

check out the love between boy & robot!

It's the Jess Hutch pattern in Lamb's Pride Worsted. I had a brainwave during finishing, and instead of knitting, felting & attaching appliqués to the front, I dug through my buttons to find some excellent remnants. The heart button is my absolute fave - the Boy used the name Heart Shaped Robots for a music project once, and I knew that our robot would have to have a heart on it somewhere. I also used some of the safety eyes I ordered a few months ago, since Blake is past the swallowing everything phase (I hope).

His name, Ro-Bert (or more formally, the title of this entry 81:Ro-Bert), is a reference to our imaginary second son, Bert.

This was such a satisfying project to finish. When the Boy saw it for the first time he said, "our family is complete." Hee.

bert watches the snow day develop

Labels: blake, embroidery, fo, naknisewmo, repeats, toy

A little cotton bear out of left-over Sugar n' Cream for the Mother Bear Project. The Boy got me Knitting for Peace for Christmas and this was my first foray into the charity knitting therein. I had trouble with the facial embroidery (this is the third draft of that nose/mouth combo) and one of the seams is kind of gross. Other than that, I couldn't be more pleased at the way this little girl has turned out.

I finished her on Saturday night and took her to church the next morning so I could collect some good vibes for whomever will get her. While I was there I got many, many compliments; I'm playing with the idea of organizing a drive in which some parishioners will knit bears along with me, and we'll offer them for sponsorship to the rest of the congregation. The hard part is convincing a notoriously frugal congregation to pay $8 for a bear they don't even get to take home. Maybe it'll go over better if I read the article about the AIDS orphans in K4P from the pulpit.

Labels: embroidery, fo, knitting for peace, stash, toy

...it could be bunnies.

Waddaya know, it's a baby present that isn't booties! It's a bunny from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, knit out of super-great Blue Sky Alpaca that I picked up from Gaspereau Valley Fibres in Wolfvegas last summer. I couldn't get two skeins of the shade I wanted, so after much soul searching, I bought two adjoining colours. The result was a lovely subtle mottled look. This is my first time knitting alpaca and I was/am in love. I'm not quite as happy with the acrylic blend pink fuzzy ear lining; the yarn may be called Candy Floss, but it doesn't knit up too sweetly.

This took me about a week in November to knit up, but lacking a deadline, the pieces just sat about until now. The only real snag was the finishing; once I'd started it, I was reacquainted with my limits in the field of embroidery. The eyes started out as French knots, then became Continental knots, then Forbidden Knots, then I threw up my hands and did the damn satin stitch. And the second arm placement was murder - when I arrived at LK last night, the bunny had only one arm because I'd given up after two unsuccessful attempts. I finally got it right, thanks to a lot of painstaking checking and rechecking (and some liberal use of the Queen's English). And then I didn't get to give it away after all, so s/he came home with me.

I figured out something cool with this pattern, and I post it here because I haven't seen it written up anywhere: when one is to join two or more pieces in the round, one can avoid that sloppy first join by knitting the stitches out of order (do a mini-cable for one round, in other words). The result is a strong, non-sloppy join. I'm pretty proud of myself for figuring this out, although I'm certain about a thousand knitters have done this before me.

p.s. there were a lot of bunnies out at the LK sn'b last night...

Labels: baby, birthday, embroidery, fo, lmkg, toy

In a future time, children will work together to knit a giant cyborg...

analog vs. knit digital

I've given up on the cabled baby sweater, so this knitted robot will have to suffice for the Son of Preacher. I adored knitting this: Lamb's Pride Worsted + Clover bamboo circular = love 4evr. Sewing up? I didn't love quite so much. So the robot languished on a shelf for a good long while.

Now that the robot is whole, Blake has decided that it's a girl. So I named her Roberta. Hee!

drugstore robot

Labels: birthday, fo, toy

Instead of purchasing a big honking hunk of sugar, I knit my child a chocolate bunny for Easter from Jess Hutch's pattern. I was lucky that this project had a quick turn-around time, so I couldn't procrastinate the scary scary finishing. I just don't have such a good record with finishing toys.

Yarn: brown Paton Classic Merino (bought for Henry Rollins' pants) and two colours of green Galway (sitting in my stash a year because one day I'm going to get over my finishing guilt about my other bag and make Meema's marsupial bag). This project features the most embroidery I've done on a project since the lippity lippity hat. I don't think that the sewing machines who do satin stitch need to worry about the scrap yard quite yet.

Reactions range from, "you could sell this!" (Theresa) to "it's just like the golliwogs your great grandmother used to make." (my grandmother. And no, it most certainly is not!)

Labels: blake, easter, fo, toy

Project #10 was another birthday gift for The Boy's step-mom: feline dim sum from knitty. Really easy to make and rather impressive to behold. I loved constructing these.

Labels: birthday, fo, knitty, toy