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

Knucks!

I finally finished a pair of gloves for the Boy, right in time for Christmas. I even clothes-pinned them to the tree (I'm such a Martha). They're Knucks, made out of Rowan Felted Tweed (the pattern yarn, no less!) and embroidered with the name of the Boy's tutoring affiliation.

the boy poses outside my school

I'm very proud of myself.

Labels: christmas, embroidery, fo, knitty

While on the TTC Knitalong, I picked up some Lamb's Pride Bulky in contrasting pinks. Why? I don't know. It seemed like the thing to do. Shortly afterward, I felt sorry for myself so I cast on for a Buttonhole Bag, changing colours as it suited. The result was a wonderfully eccentric, wildly pink bag. The only thing missing was a skull. So after the lovely thing was felted, I embroidered one with Patons Kroy.

Maybe this one will leave me this Christmas. Or maybe I've just found my new purse.

pink, furry & skully. who could ask for more?

Labels: birthday, embroidery, felt, fo