Pug

This knitting project turned out to be rather complicated. I finished it yesterday, except the collar. I've decided I don't want to knit a collar. I'm going to bead one. I'll probably post photos when I get around to doing it, but for now, here's Pug. She needs a name.

Pug for Ellie

Pattern: Pug from Knit Your Own Dog by Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne.

Yarn: Lace weight Acrylic (Brand unknown)
Content: 100% Acrylic
Colors: Fawn and Black

Needles: Inox size 0000 double points

Cast on: June 11, 2014
Completed: March 9, 2015

Comments: Oh my gosh, I love this little girl! The pattern calls for fingering weight yarn and size 2 needles, giving a finished size around 4 to 5 inches. I made this to go with my Ellowyne dolls, so I needed it to be much smaller. I decided to use lace weight yarn and size 0000 needles. I knit it exactly as written, just with smaller yarn and needles. The finished size is 2.25 inches tall from floor to top of head, and 2.75 inches from nose to tail. Perfect!

The pattern is not an easy one. It's not written as clearly as it could be, and fiddly. It almost took longer for me to sew the pieces together than it did to knit her. It was worth it though. I'm madly in love with her.

She's a very proud little lady.

Look at that adorable face!

And that sweet little tail. Those stitches are tiny!

So cute from behind!

Getting those ears right was a challenge. I sewed them on, took them off, sewed them on, ... several times before I got it right.

She loves attention and will bug you for it.

Can't you just see that little tail wagging with joy?

She loves to sit in Ellie's lap.

Live long and prosper. \\//

A Teddy Bear

I was going to do a WIP Wednesday post, but Blogger was down for a couple days, so I will save it for another day. Today I am showing off another one of my machine knitting toy designs.

Before I bought my first knitting machine, I got a few magazines to see what kinds of things I could make on one. Such beautiful things. One issue had 2 patterns that I wanted to make in the worst way. One was a blue plaid suit jacket with matching skirt. The other was an adorable teddy bear. Both were written for the 4.5 standard gauge Japanese made machines. However, I ended up buying a Swiss made Passap.

My Passap came with 10 free lessons (of which I got 6 before the shop owner closed up the shop and disappeared in the middle of the night. I went to my 7th lesson and discovered an empty shop. She was later found in another state-having fled there to get out of paying a lot of debt.) At one of my lessons I asked my teacher about making this teddy bear. She said "Oh no! You can't make stuffed toys on a Passap!" I thought her statement to be ludicrous and figured she just didn't want to be bothered with helping me figure it out. So I determined to figure it out myself.

Oddly, that magazine disappeared. At first I thought I'd left it at the shop by accident, but when I went back to look it wasn't there. I don't know what happened to it. I never found it, so I figured out how to make a teddy bear completely from scratch-after just 3 lessons on my Passap. It took me just one week. This is the result, Curly the Bear.

I took my first Curly to my next lesson so I could let that teacher know that stuffed toys can be made on any knitting machine.

I made the little one first. Then, when I decided to write up the pattern and publish it I developed the larger size too. I have put this pattern up on my pattern blog. However, it is NOT written for the Passap. I got so many requests from 4.5 standard gauge machine owners that I convert it to their machines I went ahead and did that. It is the version I make available, for free, now.

The weather has been up and down. Wednesday was abolutely gorgeous. It got up to 74F degrees at my house. I was too busy to sit outside and enjoy it though. Yesterday it rained, and we're supposed to get lots of rain over the weekend (like we need more-the local rivers are almost at flood stage now). For right now, though, the sun is shining-for just a couple hours. I'm going to go take advantage of it and finish that second entrelac mitt I've been working on.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Say Hello to Fenmore

I stepped out this morning to check out the weather and who did I see up in a tree? Fenmore, one of our neighboring Kootenai Gnomes. He was watching the snow fall.



He was all dressed up in his holiday finery. He said he was heading to an office Christmas party later today. I talked him into coming down and sitting for a photograph.

Fenmore, the Kootenai Gnome

Pattern: Yuletide Gnomes by Alan Dart

Yarns: Caron Simply Soft Eco in Pine and Wine Country
Sensations Cello in white
Bernat Disco in Sizzlin Silver
Unknown 100% acrylic in Peach.
Small bits of acrylic worsted in white and black.

Needles: Size 5-24 inch Addi Turbo Circular, Size 10-24 inch Addi Turbo Circular.

Cast On: November 24, 2008
Completed: December 10, 2008

Comments: I knit the size medium. As usual, I used worsted weight yarn instead of sport weight. His eyes are embroidered french knots with black worsted acrylic. I wish the silver metallic strands in his beard showed in the picture. He looks very festive.


Yes, it's snowing out. It's not supposed to stop until Monday, or melt away cos we are now in a deep freeze. Glad I have nowhere to go. Sounds like the perfect day to make home made chili and biscuits for dinner.

Have a great day.

Deep in the Christmas Knitting

I have made my list of Christmas knitting, and I'm well into getting it done. Sweet Hubby's company always has a White Elephant gift exchange at the annual Christmas party. I have decided to make a gnome for one of our gifts. His name will be Filmore, and he will be a Christmas gnome. I got this much done yesterday.


I'm using something new I've not tried before. Caron Simply Soft Eco yarn. It's a worsted weight acrylic and polyester yarn made with recycled plastic bottles. How cool is that?


It's incredibly soft, and is knitting up very very nicely. I think I will be very pleased with the results.

The only thing I can't seem to decide is what color beard to make him. Originally, I thought I'd do a traditional christmasy white beard with some leftover Cello, but I don't have much of it left. In fact, I don't think there's enough for a beard. I don't want to purchase any more yarn (the gift is supposed to be cheap), so I dug in the stash. I found a ball of black Fluff, and a skein of silver Bernat Disco. The disco has metallic silver in it with the fuzzy silver, so it's quite glittery. I don't know if that would be too much or not. Let me know what you think? Some help with this decision would be nice.


In the meantime, I'm gonna dig some more in the stash. I know there's got to be other colors in it somewhere that would make a good beard. I vaguely remember bringing home several skeins of S.R. Kertzer Fizz in copper when I still had the shop. A red beard would be cute.

By the way, I have found out that these yarns are discontinued. So I better find a clearance sale and stock up. I have no intention of stopping the Gnome production.

My weekend was busy, then not. On Saturday I went to Costco to stock up the pantry. It had been 3 months since my last trip, so the pantry was getting pretty bare. I figure if I can walk around Costco, I can walk around the Tulum Mayan ruins in Mexico. Well, I did it. I walked all over Costco, loaded my cart with all the necessities (and some wants), and came home with a leg so swollen it was downright ugly. Sigh....I'm not liking this.

Saturday night was a big birthday party for my niece, Heidi. I can't believe she's 40 now. That means I'm gonna be 50 pretty soon! Anyway, the party was a lot of fun. Mostly family was there, and many of Heidi's friends.

The cake was a tradgedy though. It is an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.


The order was for a cake with those funky pink candy dots on it and pink lettering. This is what we got. Brown and Pink roses. And what is with the bright orange 40? Huh????? I took this picture right after Holly (Heidi's sister) accidentally dropped it on the floor as she was carrying it to the kitchen. Fortunately, it fell on it's bottom, instead of flipping over and landing on it's top. Or maybe unfortunately?

We ate it anyway, since none of the cake actually touched the floor. It was delicious. Here's the birthday girl blowing out the candles, with some help from Jacob.


I took a lot of pics at the party, but these are the only ones I can show the public. (I am so adept at catching everyone with their eyes closed-even without a flash!) Here's one of daughter Ruth that turned out pretty good.


Yeah, that's my sock bag on the end of the couch. I worked on my sock while I was partying. My family is used to seeing me knit at these gatherings.

On Sunday I felt like a Zombie. More from staying up past 1am than from drinking. I didn't drink enough to get drunk. I had every intention of doing so, but just couldn't do it. I hate paying the price the next morning. I don't know how people can do it. I feel bad enough in the morning as it is! Anyway, I felt like a Zombie, and my leg was huge and ugly. So I sat in the hug with my leg up, watched DVD's, and knitted all day-more or less. I knitted between naps. I had a hard time staying awake all day.

By Monday morning, the swelling had gone back down on the leg. What a relief. Gonna have to be really careful though. Maybe I won't hoof it all over Tulum after all.

Have a great day.

Arrrr...There Be Pirate!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you:

Pierre the Pirate

A close up of his hat.

A cute face.

Pattern: Pirate from Knitted and Felted Toys by Zoe Halstead.

Yarn: Assorted worsted weight acrylics.

Needles: Size 5 addi turbo circular.

Cast on: June 4, 2008
Completed: November 3, 2008

Comments: This was easy to knit, but a challenge to put together.

I made a couple changes to the pattern. First, I used worsted weight yarn and size 5 needles instead of sport weight yarn and size 3 needles. It made him about 17 inches tall. Second I added a nose with short rowing.

If I had it to do over, I would make the nose about 3 or 4 rows lower. Eyes should have been closer to the center of the face. Didn't leave me with very much forehead to work with for the hair and hat (which is why the hat is back a bit far on his head).

I also finished this Christmas ornament cover over the weekend. The pattern for it is in The Beadecked Ornament Book 1 by Laura Jensen.




Finally, Tommy was doing something cute this weekend. He was sleeping.


Have a good day.

Please sir, may I have some brains?

There are days when I wonder if there is any of the grey matter in my head at all. Take this past week for instance.

I have been working on assembling Pierre the Pirate. However, the Hat instructions have frustrated me to no end, which is why he's not done yet. I have not been able to figure out what it means by sewing the sides and top together. ???? If I do that, it doesn't look like a hat! Certainly not like what's in the picture. How do I put it on the head? In desperation, I even posted a question about it on Ravelry (to which I got absolutely NO replies).

This afternoon I've figured it out. I missed the all important-------> (Make 2)

Oops!

There are supposed to be 2 hat pieces. Not one. Suddenly it is all making sense.

Off to make a second hat piece.

Have a nice evening.

WIP Wednesday 10/29/08

Since I have to put my leg up on pillows on a regular basis, and I'm feeling much better, the creative juices have begun to flow and I'm getting things done.

Yesterday I started assembling Pierre the Pirate. He has turned out to be quite a challenge to assemble too. The little pile of black beside him is his pirate hat and an eye patch. The instructions for the hat are hazy at best, so I'm not quite sure how I'm gonna do it. I hope Ravelry can give me some tips. Anyway, I want to get him done before next Wednesday so I can take him to the Knitwits meeting.


I started the sky on Dogwood & Hummingbirds.


And this is where I am on an ornament cover I started a couple weeks ago. I just have to finish the fringe and it's done.


I also knit a couple inches on the Deep Forest sock last night, and I started a pair of baby socks this morning. I've decided I can not go without my letter 'O' for October in the Sock A Month knitalong. Baby socks just take a couple hours or so to knit.

Today it's supposed to get up into the 60's. I see deck knitting in my immediate future.

Have a great day.

Feet and an Arm

Thank you so much to those of you who left comments in my last post. I really appreciate it. Your answers to my question, "Why do you read my blog?", surprised me. I feel honored and humbled that my knitting and bead work are an inspiration to folks. I am also glad to hear folks enjoy my moose stories.

Speaking of moose, I haven't seen any for a few weeks. Lots of deer, but no moose. Not even a sign they've been around during the night. However, my brother-in-law, who lives a mile from us on the creek that runs through the Parkarosa, is seeing them. So I suspect they have moved over to his house for the winter since that is what they did last year. Of course, after posting this, there will be a dozen or so of them strolling on the back lawn this evening.

Winter. Wow. It's on it's way here. We shouldn't actually be getting any snow until mid November, but it's been so chilly lately. Right now, as I write this, a large quantity of grey clouds has moved in, and it smells like snow. No snow in the weather prediction, but I'm starting to wonder.

Yesterday Sweet Hubby mowed the lawn for the last time this year. That led him to decide to blow out the sprinklers. Then to empty and roll up the garden hoses-which were full of ice! He had to thaw them out. Then he decided, since he was at it, he better winterize our little camping trailer. Some of the pipes were already frozen! (Thankfully, none were damaged.) So it took him awhile to get all the water out of it. He made a little pile of ice on the front lawn. It was still there this morning. Even though the sun has been shining, and the thermometer says 54F, it hasn't been what I would call warm.

Over the weekend I got just a bit of knitting done. Pirate Pierre has 2 feet and an arm.


I also made good progress on Dogwood & Hummingbirds. I finished the last flower, and I'm now working on the last Hummingbird.


Yesterday I went grocery shopping with Sweet Hubby. My leg was feeling pretty decent, so I decided to find out where it's at on the recovery gauge. I got through about 3/4ths of the grocery list, then I had to hand it over to SH and go out to the car. The leg starting throbbing in a most painful way, but mostly I got dizzy. Really really dizzy. Almost didn't make it to the car. A lady saw me staggering in the parking lot and helped me the rest of the way (I didn't let SH help me cos I thought I was gonna be just fine). Once I sat down, I started feeling better immediately. SH thinks maybe my blood pressure dropped because I was getting exercise for the first time after almost a month of laying around. The store was just a bit too much for me. Well, now I know. I need to build myself up a bit before I try that again.

The swelling in my leg is almost gone, and I have minimal pain when it's up on pillows. Standing and walking is still painful, but the pain is definitely decreasing each day. Now, if we could get my digestive system back in good order. I suspect exercise will help with that.

That's all the news for today. I am in the mood to make Pierre another arm, so I think I'll dig out the knitting needles.

Have a great day!

WIP Wednesday 9/10/08

This week we are having absolutely gorgeous weather! Mid 70's to 80's. The air is crystal clear, and smells wonderful, if a bit autumnish. Perfect for knitting out on the deck. I got some major knittage done yesterday.

First of all, the first of the Opal sock. Got all the way to the heel flap last night.




I'm winging this one (making it up as I go). I decided to try a slip stitch pattern that makes a sort of faux pleated pattern (something from my machine knitting obsession days). It doesn't show very well in the photo, but in real life the texture shows up very nicely.

I also spent a couple hours working on Pierre Pirate. He has a head, with a nose, now.

I had quite a time with that head. I got it all done only to discover I'd put his nose 2 stitches too far to the left. He looked kind of mutantish, so I frogged and did it over. I'm really glad I did because not only is the nose in the right place, but I managed to perfect it's shape too. I have to say, this is the best short rowed nose I've made thus far. Next- - - arms!

Yesterday was the finals for the 2008 Knitters Hunk competition. This is the first time I've participated in this contest. It required looking at photos each morning of such hunkiness as Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Alan Rickman, Hugh Laurie, etc, and voting which I liked best. A tough tough job, but someone had to do it. The winner for this year is Hugh Jackman. His Knitterly hunkiness can be seen on the Hand Eye Crafts blog-location of the contest. I'm kinda sad the contest has ended. I was enjoying starting my morning with that task.

Have a great day!

WIP Wednesday 8/20/08

I can't believe it's Wednesday already. The week is just flying by.

Let me introduce to you my new friend-in-progress. This is Molly Moose.




Well, technically, it's her nose. But I did say 'friend-in-progress'. If you look over in the sidebar, you'll see I actually started her in the first part of July. That's cos when I brought the pattern home I was so excited I HAD to cast on RIGHT NOW! Once I got that out of my system, I was able to get back to the socks.

I'm using this pattern for Molly: Mortimer Moose, by Mary Martin.


The Summer of Socks KAL ends this month, so I will be getting back to working on Molly soon.

Last year, when I went to the fair to see if I'd won any ribbons, I saw this felted moose. It had won a grand champion, if I remember correctly, and was absolutely adorable. I saw it. I wanted the pattern! There, of course, was no information on the pattern or anything on the entry tag. I didn't even recognize the name of the person who had entered it. I searched the internet, I asked everyone I knew if they knew the pattern. I even asked on Ravelry, but no one knew of such a pattern. I found it last month on one of my visits to my local LYS, Harmony Yarns. (Oh,wow! It has just suddenly hit me why Melody named the shop that. Took me long enough! LOL!)

There's a famous designer who lives in Coeur d'Alene. Her name is Mary Martin. She used to design patterns for yarn companies and magazines way back in the 80's. She's a fun person, chock full of energy, and an extremely talented knitter. She does wonderful knit felted toy patterns. I should have known, when I saw the moose at the fair, that it was her design. Anyway, her new pattern, Mortimer Moose, is not on her web site, but if you contact her I'm sure she'll sell one to you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is raining today. I am enjoying the cool dampness. It got so unbearably hot over the weekend. 101F on Sunday, when we were at Silverwood Theme Park. I didn't get to be in the lazy river as much as I wanted, and my shoulders and back got burned despite the gallons of spf 30 lotion I had on. I did get my Pina Colada though, and I had a good time despite the heat.

In the evening, before heading for home, we stopped in Lindy's for dinner. Lindy's is the restaurant inside the park where Ruth has been working, washing dishes this summer. It's a very nice little restaurant, and the food was good. The manager approached our table while we were eating to tell us how wonderful an employee our daughter Ruth has been and how much he hopes she'll come back next year to work for him. I thought that was really sweet of him. Made me glow with pride. Then, he paid for our meal. I've never had that happen before. It made our day!

One more thing. The voting for the Socks on Vacation photo contest opened yesterday. Soon, I will know if my photo has won or not. Voting is not open to the public, or I'd ask for your help. I can give you the link so you can see the picture though.

My SOV Photo

Please let me know what you think.

Well, my eyes are feeling good now, so I better get that sock done. I'm running out of time.

Have a good day.

WIP Wednesday 8/13/08

Today's WIPs feature bead crochet. Yesterday I started this little project called a Caterpillar Bracelet. I'm using size 11 seeds, size 8 drops, and size 12 perle cotton for the thread. Been wanting to try this for awhile but I couldn't find my book that has the instructions.


Yesterday afternoon I decided I was gonna look for it until I found it. Took about half an hour. It was amongst the knitting books on the shelf in my studio (yes, I have a room we call the knitting studio. It's where I keep my knitting 'stuff', as well as my knitting machines). It's now where it belongs, on the shelf with the beading books.

I was kind of surprised how easy this technique is. Don't know why. Everything about bead crochet has been easy so far. Anyway, it looks flat, but technically it isn't. It's a typical six round rope. it's all in how you string the beads.

This project I actually started before the last camping trip.


I got it all strung at the campground, then when I started crocheting I discovered I'd read the chart wrong when I was stringing and had to redo it. A pain in the butt too cos it's 4 yards worth of size 8 beads. I started crocheting yesterday-just so I can say I've started the fun part. All of 3 rounds done. LOL!

This is the pattern I'm using. You can find it, and a lot more on the BeadDust web site.


Pierre the Pirate has made some progress-how ever small. I worked on him at the Knitwits meeting last week.


Yesterday I met with Marguerite for lunch. She was wearing her newly finished Summer Spice Gansey sweater. It is a gorgeous knit. Looked great on her too.

I had a great time! We talked about sock knitting, blogging, Ravelry, and weddings, amongst other things. I really enjoy getting together with her when she comes to visit her son. The food was great too.

Today I take Tommy to the vet for a rabies shot. Gotta keep those shots up to date!

Have a great day!

WIP Wednesday 6/11/08

Pierre the Pirate is starting as a pair of pants.




I have finished 5 whole repeats of the current stitch pattern in Honeybee. I've got 5 more to go. I know I'm a bit biased, but I think it's stunning so far.




I have survived yesterdays monstrous weather. The snow did not stick at my house. However, some areas got as much as 1 1/2 inches on the ground. The last time it snowed in June was in 1901. Wow. Today the temps are supposed to go up, the clouds are supposed to clear, and we're supposed to get at least a week of 'normal' June weather. I can hardly wait! I wanna go back to knitting on the deck in the sunshine each morning.

There is a new knitting magazine that has hit the market. I haven't found a copy of it around here yet, but it's being talked about a great deal in a most positive way, so I checked out their web site and have ordered a subscription. If it's anything like they are saying, it should be a good one. There's over 50 patterns in the premier issue. I want to make the lace tunic. Check it out, Verena Knitting Magazine.

Have a good day.

Darcy Dino

Finally got around to sewing together the dinosaur. Figured I really needed to since I have a Knitwits meeting tomorrow. She's all done, and darn cute, if you want my opinion. Click on the pics to embiggen.

Darcy the Dinosaur

From the tail

Love those red spikes.

Pattern: Stig Steg from Knitted and Felted Toys by Zoe Halstead

Yarn: Pooch by Patons Yarns in color 65210. Red Heart Classic in Red (double stranded).

Needles: Size 11 Addi Turbo Circulars

Comments: A very clever pattern. I would make this again-with my changes of course. The yarn, however, was a bear to work with. I'll not be buying it again. If I were to do this over, I'd drop a needle size-not that it would help with working with this yarn. All the nubs kept getting caught on the tips --and lord help you if you need to unravel any rows!

Changes I Made: The pattern for the spikes is fiddly and a pain. She has you casting on for the total length of spikes you need, then knitting each one individually in a way that leaves yarn ends for every single spike. Arrgh!!!!! I attribute this to the authors lack of knowledge in other ways to do something like this. She probably has never knit lace edgings to sew onto towels for wedding presents. You learn new things doing that. So I made them my own way.

I cast on 2 sts, increased 1 stitch every other row on the same side until they were 'about right', then decreased every other row back to 2 sts, knitting in garter stitch. I used the 'knit in front and back of st' for the increases, and 'knit 2 together' for the decreases. You can make length adjustments this way. I knitted 7 spikes (cos that's what the pattern had), only to find out 7 was too long, so I was able to unravel the 7th one, then finish off. I sewed the spikes on the same as for her version.

One other thing. I tried something different for stuffing the head. I wanted to use the safety eyes, but the holes between sts are pretty big. So I cut the toe part of a pair of nylons and used it to line the head. Worked like a dream.

Well, I'm off to bead group. Gonna tackle that first french beaded flower today. Thought I'd do it with Cindy hovering. I feel safer that way.

Have a great day.