monkey!

I went to another first birthday party today. (All the little knitter girls are turning 1!) This one was for Bella and her party invite and stuff were all monkey themed, so I decided she needed a crocheted monkey.

The pattern is just called Crocheted Monkey and is from a Japanese crochet site (Ravelry link).

I couldn’t get the arms and legs stuffed in a way that didn’t make them too stiff so I added pipe cleaners to both to make them bendable and beans to the legs (since they were bigger they squished too much with just the pipe cleaners). She can kind of hang from a tree, so I think it worked pretty well!

The skirt was my idea and I love how tutu-like it turned out to be.

I hope Bella loves her!

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legwarmers, butterfly, return of the chaos

Mom's legwarmers were delivered on Christmas. I was a little nervous about how well they'll stay up. We'll see how it goes!

mom’s legwarmers

I finally got a photograph of the snail outside his home. He's dirty now because he was taken to the park one day.

niels’ snail

I then made a butterfly in a strawberry for Stefan. Again, too stinkin' cute for words.

peeking butterfly

Finally, my house has descended into chaos again. We got a new TV and all the components had to be pulled out so the new stuff could be put together but nothing works immediately, of course, so everything is spread around the house. Also, the boys went and slept at my parents' house and brought back bags and bags of stuff with them. I don't get how the smallest people require the most stuff. Actually, I do get it but it gets frustrating.

I'm hoping that a) all the new electronics will play nicely with each other tomorrow (once we get the right cable) and we can start sorting out what needs to go and where it can go.

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snail in a pear, living room

For some reason I don't want to work on big projects. I go through this at times. I usually end up knitting dish cloths but this time it's amigurumi that have caught my obsession attention. I was going to make another snowman but instead I decided to make a snail in a pear from a pattern called Little Toys and Their Homes. Niels had asked for it and I started and gave up on a seahorse and robot (the yarn wasn't right in both cases) for him after make a turtle and a seahorse for Stefan. So, here's the snail in his home, the S.S. Leaf (according to Niels).

peek-a-boo!

Isn't he too stinking cute for words?

I just realized that I need a picture of the snail out of the pear. I'll get that tomorrow as Niels is currently sleeping with the snail.

I've also been thinking a lot about my living room. (I know, exciting!) We had a Hannukah party this weekend and it got me moving to get the living room, dining room and kitchen into much better shape. Big parties will do that. I'm still not entirely satisified with the state of the living room, though. I would like to replace the giant white Ikea monstrosity that surrounds our TV.

playroom corner

You can only see part of it here. There is another of the four-cube pieces to the right of the TV as well. It is useful in that it has a lot of drawers and closets, however as you can see from the state of the pieces on the far left, the drawers and doors have broken off a few of them. I wanted to get the TV stand that goes with our new bookcase in the corner but I don't think it is big enough for the size TV we want to get. Our couch is a fair distance from the TV and the flat TVs are wider so we'd need something bigger. Erik and I are still discussing. Anyway, here's a couple more photos.

I occasionally consider putting the kid's play/train table in their room but I think it would take up too much of the room, so I'm not sure what to do. I have to say this: the room is much nicer when everything is put away. The new bookcase really helps with that.

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amigurumi ornaments galore

I gave the boys' teachers their gifts today, so now I can show them to you.

snowmen for the teachers

Aren't they too stinkin' cute for words? They came from one of my favorite amigurumi designers on etsy. She also designed the bear in the balloon and the robot I made earlier in the summer. They were ornaments and I took the photo before I put the yarn in their heads (aw) to finish them off. The kids wanted some too, so I made Niels another snowman.

niels snowman

Stefan got a Christmas tree.

amigurumi tree ornament

I didn't have the right sized eyes left, so we got those little jingle bells to make ornaments instead. Stefan was excited about it. As you can probably tell, we decorated our tree today. Niels insisted that the tree and snowman should be next to each other. Our little fake tree isn't very big but it was decorated with enthusiasm.

our tiny tree

Erik used the extra big tree lights to decorate the rest of the room a bit.

Erik decided to decorate more

I guess filling that top shelf will have to wait until after Christmas is over. I don't mind, though. I have lots of other things to do in the meanwhile!

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NaNoSweMo and NaBloPoMo and gift knitting

Because I'm crazy, I've decided to participate in NaNoSweMo (National Sweater Knitting Month?) and NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). I am going to try to post on my blog every day in November and I cast on today for Anhinga, by Norah Gaughan, which I am knitting in All Seasons Cotton, of course. I am having issues with uploading and there isn't much to see so there's no picture yet. Hopefully I will work out my upload issues. Having pictures would certainly help my blog posting too. We'll see how that goes.

Since I last posted I finished a cowl for a friend's birthday.

all cowled up

A baby turtle for Stefan.

turtle back

A robot for my friend's son's second birthday.

robot dude!

A top…

top for K’s baby

a bear in a hot air balloon…

bear in a balloon for K’s baby

and a blanket bunny for Kristi's baby.

bunny face

 

I have to send the bunny off soon, she only has about a month left to go although I know, from experience, that the last month is the longest.

The BobaKnitters also made her this beautiful blanket, which I designed with in put from Cookie. I didn't knit on it but I did most of the seaming.

k’s blanket

I also finished a gift for a friend who preparing to battle breast cancer. The day I found out I cast on for this gift because that's what knitters do, we cast on. I hope that my gift and the warmth it provides help her in her fight. I don't have a picture to show you because of my aforementioned uploading problem but that's probably for the best since I think she reads my blog and I haven't given it to her yet.

Wish me luck in my endeavors!

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bleeding dye, broken hooks and socks

Last year I dyed some yarn. This week I tried to use it. I knew I was going to have to wash the item afterwards because the yarn never rinsed clear but I didn't realize just how much I was going to have to wash it. I washed it in the sink with textile detergent (the Dharma version of Synthrapol) then I soaked it in vinegar and washed it in the machine with hot water and the textile detergent. It's still bleeding. On everything. I'm very frustrated. Dyers out there, any suggestions on setting this crap? It's procion fiber reactive dye on a cotton/rayon yarn. It's frustrating because I think the color is pretty and I loved how it looked in this pattern (the darkside cowl – Rav link).

bleeding cowl

Another frustrating thing happened when I was crocheting a baby sea turtle for Stefan.

baby turtle in progress

Cute, right? Yes, but this happened.

sad square hook

Sigh. I have to say I'm not having much luck with the Kollage square needles and hooks. I have an I and J hook that are solid wood and work very well but this one, clearly, has issues. Or had. I glued it with Erik's model epoxy (my go to, must stay glued, glue) and it seems to be holding so now I can make the legs for that little guy. Then Niels wants the robot from the cover there.

Last, but very much not least, a pair of socks in the self-patterning cotton sock yarn I got at Sock Summit.

starting stripey socks

This picture is from a few days ago, I'm almost to the heel already. I was making the Upstream architechture from Cat Bordhi's book but I decided that I'd rather have the increases on the foot so I'm flipping it over and making it a Foxglove sock instead. Gotta love Cat's genius socks. And they aren't even bleeding or broken!

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oink

stefan’s pig

I made Stefan a pig for his birthday (Ravelry project details). I wanted to finish it in time for his party which had a loose animal theme, but I wasn't fast enough. He really likes it and Niels, my mother and one of Niels' friends have all requested pigs of their own.

I also made Nada Nother Bunny Buddy last week for my cousin's wife, who is pregnant (Ravelry project details). I'm hoping that it got there on time for the baby shower yesterday, so now I can post it, since she reads this blog.

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a mouse in my house!

I must confess that one of the things I'm really loving about crochet is just how fast the small projects are. Over the weekend, I made a string bag, which my mother was admiring so much that I think I'll make one for her too. Then yesterday and today I made a little mouse which Niels glommed on to. I had intended it to be for Stefan, actually, since I knit a mouse for Niels when I was pregnant. I can just whip up another crocheted one for Stefan though, super fast!

Amigurumi!: Super Happy Crochet Cute

The mouse is from my birthday present from Kristi, Amigurumi, Super Happy Crochet Cute. The Bobaknitters have named the doll on the far right in the photo "Strawberry Slutcake" because you can see her panties in one of her photos. Tsk tsk, Strawberry. I wasn't going to make her anyway. Stefan said, "ooo ooo ah ah!" when he saw the book cover, oh and he made his pig noise which sounds like a snort, so I might be making the pig before the monkey. It does look simpler and I got some eyes from Michael's the other day. They only had one choice, though, so I ordered more online in various sizes. I think the safety eyes will make a difference in the cute factor. Kristi also clued Teenuh in to the fact that I need pink yarn (I guess we had been talking about making pigs earlier) so I have some. All I need really is felt for the little feet. I have a ton of embroidery floss somewhere. I have to find it. I guess I should be relieved that I never found a taker for all my cross stitch supplies that I tried to give away.

Knitted Toys: 25 Fresh & Fabulous Designs

Cookie also gave me a toys book for my birthday: Zoe Mellor's knitted toys. There are a ton of cute patterns in that one too. I might make a "stash snake" one of these days. I also really like the birds in the top left corner of the cover, you make several and hang them on a string with large beads in between. It's really cute

I'm all about the cute these days. Cute and easily finished!

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