Susanne's babies like these so much she asked me to make two more to have one in case one needs to be washed or such. You know I'm a sucker for bunnies, so I was happy to oblige.
It was nice to see the bunnies after they'd be used and loved and washed for a while. The yarn really bloomed up in a lovely way. The ones in the front are the new ones.
I just registered for Sock Summit! I'll be taking Socks without Wool with Amy Singer on Saturday and attending the luminary panel on Sunday. I plan to be there on Friday to check out the marketplace as well. Since we're driving, we'll see how that plan goes.
See you in Portland, Sock Summiteers!
So, I've been wanting to weave. I think it started when I heard Brenda Dayne talking about the Ashford Knitter's Loom on Cast On. Then Faith got a Schacht Cricket Loom. This post in particular intrigued me. (Scroll past her very impressive pregnant belly there.) I then found out that the Textiles class at Niels' school owns a loom. I thought it was a big floor loom model and had decided I would figure it out over the summer, having never actually seen it. I took a close look at my friend Victoria's floor loom (which I think is a Schacht Baby Wolf) and panicked. I happened to be in Purlescence last week (funny how you know even now that this sentence ends wth me buying something, don't you?) and looked again at the Cricket looms and, as you guessed, brought one home. Yesterday, I assembled it.
I had missed bringing the wap over the beams when I set it up the first time. It wasn't too hard to fix, though.
Once I fixed the warping I got off and running…
And tonight I have my first finished woven object!
So it isn't very long (about 30 inches) and the edges aren't great but it's my first project and it was done so fast I'm astonished. I have ideas about what my next project might be. Kristi gave me some cone cotton yarn when she moved that I'm thinking might make nice placemats, or a handtowel or something like that. The possibilities are endless! Well, 10" wide but as long as I can stand warping!
I got out my copy of Creepy Cute Crochet to look for instructions on how to make the general body shape I wanted for the Mystery Animal. Stefan had other ideas, though. Stefan said he wanted "the green guy", otherwise known as Cthulhu. Luckily, he's a lot more friendly looking in a small crochet version.
Obviously, he needs eyes. I didn't have the right sized safety eyes so I figured I'd find something after he was finished. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble embroidering them on. I might take a page from Janice's book and get some felt.
The part that amuses me about all of this is that Cthulu (yes, without the second H) was Erik's screen name on the MUD where we met so I feel connected to that name. Stefan still calls this "that green guy" though, which is super cute. Also, he doesn't seem at all bothered by That Green Guy's lack of eyes.
Stefan, Niels and I were at Books Inc today and they had a couple of baskets by the register filled with giant microbes. They were picking them up and admiring them and pointing out that the chicken pox one is kind of cute, and looks a bit like a chicken. Then Niels picks up one and says, "what's this? It says 'her-ups'?" That's herpes, folks. They also had HIV and The Clap. There was also staph and strep and stomachache and others but somehow, we kept ending up with the, ahem, social diseases. In fact, I practically had to pry the clap out of Stefan's hands so he would leave it there. I actually said, "Put that back, we are not bringing the Clap home." I crack myself up.
Anyway, you can see why he liked it. It's kind of cute. It also bears a resemblance to the way the mystery animal on Zoboomafoo often appears. He had decided it was the mystery animal, and that's why he wanted it. So, I'm thinking that I could reproduce a mystery animal. All I need to do is crochet a body and head piece without adding arms and legs, right? I just need some safety eyes and cuddely, fuzzy yarn.
the sheep free knitter 
