Mice and Ducks

Earlier this summer, I was in a knitting slump. I was doing a lot of sewing, but wanted something for at the TV, and I had no orders, no needs, just some WIP that I was procrastinating about. I thought for a bit, and came up with the idea of doing felted mice. I had received a gift of a CD of a friend's music, right around Christmas. I wanted to pay him for it but he refused. I told him since he used his talents to make it, I would use my talent to make something in return. At first I was going to make something for him, but thought his wife might think that's odd. I couldn't think of anything for the two of them (except a sweetheart mitten), and then I remembered they have cats!! Something for the cats!  As well, we were going to a luxury cottage, courtesy of my SIL, and she had two cats--that had moved in with her MIL, so I thought this would be a nice, little "thank you" gift. I know it doesn't seem anywhere close to an equal comparison. I was also planning a poncho for her daughter....the thing was, she was going to rent the cottage anyway and invited us, and her parents to come too, as long as we paid for all the food. So, I guess, paying for the food, and our nights we cooked, were really the thank you.

I looked through Pinterest and Ravelry, and finding a simple felted mouse seemed a bit harder than I thought it would be. In this case, Pinterest is a bit of a waste, since it was hard to narrow the search. However, many free patterns don't get posted to Ravelry because the creators think they're not "real" patterns.  I used THIS pattern.  This pattern also looks really nice, and I wonder why I didn't find it the first time!

I started off using the yarn I had bought last September from a woman in the area. I had been using it for mittens and they weren't all that soft and some of them had felted with washing, some not so much. I didn't want to do just solids, since I had so many colours, so I just went with contrasting.

Although two row stripes are easy, since these were done on circular needles, one row stripes could also be done. I could have even made two at one time on one circular. I just changed colours as I got bored. But still tried to maintain some sort of aesthetic LOL.

 

These are unfelted. Pretty boring, I thought. But I kept going. And going. And going. 

 I ended up with 15 in the first batch!  When I felted them (I don't think I did all 15 at once), I used a zippered mesh pouch, in with my regular laundry. However, the tails all got very tangled and some had to be amputated.

 Awwww. Aren't they cute?

 I decided to crack open some Patons "Classic Wool" for a few. I love using it for felted slippers, but I had quite a bit of very small balls, with no "matching yarn". The two on the upper right are Classic Wool. I used the same needles and same stitches, and look how tiny they came out to be. I will say, the other ones seem a little big, they average about 11cm/4" long (not including the tail) and are quite fat.

Then I started thinking...what about the dogs in our lives? My SIL had just gotten a dog. My parents were looking after our dog during the cottage trip, and they also have a dog. I had made Skippy a duck, in April 2010, according to Ravelry but I can't find it on my blog.

He really enjoyed it, but eventually chewed the head off. The squeaker has stayed inside, but I haven't tried to wash it, and it's super gross.

Yeah. Super gross.

I struggled with figuring out the feet for the duck. I started out doing the i-cord legs but couldn't really get the flippers to work out. I never thought to look at pictures or check the one I had made. When we went to my parents, my mom got out one I had made for their dog, and the feet were so different!

 I thought I had ended up making five. Willie, Molly, Belle, and there's two left. I suppose Skippy should get one of those.

I just found three unfelted mice that had gotten "put away" when I was cleaning up one day. I'm not sure if they're included in the yarn totals. Let's say they aren't, and I'm going to add them in now. The mice...Actually....I just saw another large pile of felted mice that need sewing up! So I will include those three with them. 15 mice= 199gr. Oh, let's call that 200gr. 5 ducks = 146gr.

Yarn In: 2242gr
Yarn Out:  346gr + 2570gr = 2916gr
Balance: 674gr more USED than bought
Costs:   $57.30/241 days = $0.24 per day 

Romper!

Lucy wanted a romper. I did not want to invest much time or money in this as I saw it as a trend item that won't last long once the reality of wearing a romper sets in. But I agreed to make one, as long as it was made so that the top and shorts could be separated again.

We started with the Burda 6797 shorts pattern from the last post. These shorts went together much quicker, though there was some fiddling with the lace trim where it meets the side seams.

We had gone back and forth between matching bias binding, plain black bias binding, or lace. She went with lace for at least the legs, and if I had enough, I'd do some on the top. I didn't have enough.

For the top, I started with a woven shell pattern that I haven't used. Then I followed a tutorial on making your own wrap top, and drew a new pattern based on how high she wanted it to meet at her side. For the back, it was going to go straight across with elastic at the top. I think it would have also looked cute if the back was shirred.  I messed up the first back somehow, making it way too small. No clue how I did that.

I used black bias binding on the edges/straps. I serged the body of the top, wanting to serge the two front layers together so I wouldn't have to baste them, and continue around the back. I wasn't going to hem the top, but at least way this would make it pretty quick if she wanted to take it apart again. I took it off the machine and found out that I serged the inside front panel to the back, effectively making a purse!!

Romper Purse, the hot new trend

Then I went to sew the body to the inside of the elastic waistband of the shorts. Some of it needed to be gathered to the waistband and I was really lucky that the back just fit. I realized when I went to sew it that I should have checked the back width to make sure it would be wide enough to sew to the waistband!

Second time worked, and we realized that the overlap was almost like a large pocket, since it was seamed at the bottom and both sides LOL.

 Lucy doesn't have much practice modelling for me LOL.

 Lucy got poked in the eye by a branch...

 Lucy doesn't realize she has to sometimes stay still. Lovely shot, too bad about the blurriness!

 Then we tried out in the yard.

 Not sure what was so funny...

 Or what she was doing here. I think I suggested she pretend to be throwing a ball, for some action

 "Where did the ball go?"

 Getting tired

 This one came out cute.

 I stitched it together where it crosses over since it seemed to be opening up a bit much. I wasn't thrilled with how the bias binding didn't lay very flat. I told her I can add some elastic underneath it, or switch it out for some fold over black elastic, which would snug it in nicely. Next time I'd just do that from the start.

Not dress code friendly (another reason I wasn't gung ho on this design).

She already asked for it to be taken apart, and is wearing the shorts a lot. I haven't seen the top again. 

The funny thing, we remembered after we bought the fabric that when she was really little, Lucy wanted to be called Daisy!

April Fool's Day

I'm usually pretty lame at April Fool's Day stunts. I wish Pinterest had been around 15 years ago. This year though, I had an idea. Crochet a spare tire cover for my husband's truck! We were a little disappointed to find out AFD was on a Saturday as that would increase the chance he'd be around his truck instead of just getting in like on a work day. Then I found out he had a "Drive Clean" emission's test booked for first thing that morning. Awesome!


It started out easy and quick, but by the end the rows were taking forever and using a lot of yarn. I fibbed and said it was for an ugly afghan contest LOL. I wish I had measured against the tire a second time and stretched it out because although I knew I had increased too much in the middle, I thought it had smoothed out. In the end, it was way too big around, but actually needed more width. I chained a bunch on ties since I didn't know how I was going to tie it on. There are ties and plain yarn zig zaging everywhere.

Lucy cut letters from fabric and then added glitter glue to brighten them up. And then it started raining. We got outside late Friday evening during a light mist while Rob was in the hot tub. We hoped he had the jets running so he wouldn't hear us laughing and dropping things. The letters were put on with double sided tape.  I did one round with reflective yarn but I don't know how well that showed at 8am.

 It did actually say "April Fool's" but I started taking the letters off. Then got bored.

Well, when he got home from the Toyota dealership, he was NOT happy. It wasn't until they came in to tell him that they weren't going to do his complimentary wash (really just a spray down, I think) because they didn't want to disturb the item on the back, that he took a look. They were all laughing and thought it was great, but he wasn't so amused. However, the next day, telling his parents, he was laughing a bit about it. I told him we wouldn't have gone to so much work if we didn't love him :)

I bought two 50gr balls of cheap yarn from the dollar store and the rest was from the stash. I'm not going to count the whole amount I used as "yarn out" because it's still in the basement LOL. But I will count 150gr to count for the two cheap balls and all the ends trimmed and the short ties I won't recycle. Apparently I've already counted that 100gr in :)

Yarn In: 1642gr
Yarn Out: 150gr + 1505gr= 1655gr
Balance: 13gr more bought than used
Costs:   $40.73/136 days = $0.30per day

Now What? And the Evils of Ravelry

I just finished up two large Christmas orders and I knew I was spending some time at the rink this afternoon so I needed something to knit. But what?! LOL! Then I remembered I have a pair of socks that have been on the go for way too long. I do have one other Christmas present for a  family member that I've been working on, but it's gotten buried and I'm not excited by it. And then, there's the mitts that need mending, the tipless glove I need to knit to replace one my son's (who borrowed them from his dad). Oh, and what about the Christmas tree skirt I've been working on for maybe 15 years?

Of course, I just went to Ravelry (home now from the rink, where I pathetically did a few rows on the socks). I see this shawl on the main page with  very interesting lace inserts.  Ooohh. That's pretty. I look at the details. The designer says she's created a new technique--short rows in lace (that is charted). Mmmm. I'm pretty certain I've done short rows in lace, perhaps when I did a baby bonnet. The pattern isn't complicated--it looks like you're just increasing (by knitting another stitch that was held, in pattern instead of in garter stitch). Or, maybe it's working the other way, knitting fewer stitches in lace each row to create the insert shape.

I wondered what some other ones looked like. Multi-coloured shawls are so vogue right now, but my stash wouldn't really support any, so I've hesitated. But maybe with this design I could mix yarns.

It's interesting how incredibly different each project looked. A few had pictures that were of the shawl laid out totally flat. To me, the lace created a sort of alien face in the shawl. Sorry. Now you're going back to look and you'll see that alien face and you'll never be able to unsee it.

So...how can I knit this, with yarns I have, and not get an alien face. Mmmm.

MUST wait till after Christmas!! I've got so much to do though as I've been ignoring Christmas for our family while focusing on everyone else's Christmas LOL!

Sock Yarn For Life?

 

I came across this contest on Marg's blog and just had to enter! My entry stated:

"I love to knit socks! I would knit some for myself, and some for my kids who have just recently learned that Mom is right. Wool is magic. I would also use a lot of the yarn to make mittens for the kindergarten classes that I supervise at lunch. And some of it would go towards fingerless mitts for gifts. I also use a knitting machine, and it loves sock yarn almost as much as I do!"

Go to http://www.yarncanada.ca/socksforlife to find out how you can enter too!

Although, on one hand, please don't....because I really want to win! If I won, would I tally it up with my "Yarn In" totals? OMG. I'd never get back into the "more used than bought" side again!