Monthly Archives: November 2007

Charmed Knits Owl

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Charmed Knits owl

I finished my owl for the baby gift. This project was so much better! I think I’ll just knit friends’ babies-to-be stuffed animals in the future. They’re so much fun to make.

The pattern is from Charmed Knits. All the yarn is stash yarn. I made a few modifications. The base piece was too big so I just took a piece of yarn and threaded it through the bottom hole and sewed it closed. The pattern called for button eyes but since it’s for a newborn I sewed eyes on instead. My favorite mod was the hair. The owl just needed some hair:

Charmed Knits Owl

Hehe that hair just makes me giggle. I’m really happy with how it turned out.

Here’s the pieces before assembly:
Charmed Knits Owl

It got down to FIVE degrees the other night. I had my hot water bottle out to keep my feet warm. Prana discovered the warm spot on the couch and snuggled on top of the bottle which was wrapped in a fleece blanket. Here he is sleeping:

Prana snuggled up in fleece blanket

Sieben’s First Snow

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Thebes and I took Sieben out to play in the first snow of winter. Boy did he love it! He was so happy. We threw snowballs and he ate them. Here’s Thebes with our happy puppy:

Thebes and Sieben out in the snow

Sieben kept sniffing the snow and then chasing it. He’s getting big.

Sieben's first snow

Kilt Hose Toe

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I started Thebes’ kilt hose. The toe fits him great. I’ve tentatively picked out a pattern from my kilt hose book. It’s a leaf pattern which I think will look pretty cool. Mr. Penguin models my progress:

Kilt hose

Here’s Prana hunting. Later that night he brought me a bird.

Prana hunting

New yarn, new baby hat

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These are the yarn and needles I got at Village Wools.

New yarn

I didn’t use the needles with the yarn though. My 3.0mm dpns went missing so these are the replacement set.

The baby hat is already finished. I don’t like babies and I don’t like knitting baby things but a friend is pregnant so I wanted to make my gift. I’ll admit baby knits are fast and the hat turned out cute. This is the umbilical cord hat from Stitch ‘n Bitch and it flew off the needles.

Baby hat

The colors fit the Ravenclaw house colors well. I’m starting on an owl from Charmed Knits. She’s not due until the end of Dec./early Jan. but I’m glad to be getting these done early.

Next up is a Gryffindor scarf for a friend’s son and my holiday/special occasion knitting is complete.

Village Wools Visit

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Abbey and I were down in Albuquerque together for a few days. Naturally, we went yarn shopping. I had heard good things on Ravelry about Village Wools. And wow, were those crafters right.

Village Wools

If the yarn store’s logo is “Your Fiber Addiction Specialists” then it must be good.

We had first ventured to Fiesta Yarns’ retail store which was an utter disappointment. (tiny store, high prices, small selection, a salewoman who didn’t know about yarn)

Craving a fun shopping experience we decided to give Village Wools a try. I’m glad we did. The staff was super friendly. I called for directions and the woman who answered was very patient with me.

Walking into the store we were greeted with yarn, yarn and more yarn! We hadn’t gotten much sleep while in ABQ and I think we may have been loud and giggly. We also may have drooled over lots of yarn.

Here’s Abbey by a wall of hand painted goodness:

Village Wools

While I have a weakness for handspun and handpainted yarn I’m on a budget. I needed yarn for a baby hat. My friend Sera is due in January and I’m making her baby a hat in Ravenclaw colors since Sera’s a Harry Potter fan.

I’ve only knit one baby hat before and wasn’t sure how much yarn I’d need. Another staff member helped me pick out the right amount of yarn.

They had a great selection of yarn and books. There are so many patterns I want to knit! I also bought a pair of 3.0mm bamboo double pointed needles. My old pair disappeared somewhere.

Pictures of my baby hat yarn coming soon.

Faulty Felting

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I threw the to be felted bowls in the dryer with my laundry. They didn’t really felt.

felted bowl

felted bowl

Maybe they yarn was pretreated not to felt? Or maybe it needs more agitation? I figure I’ll try again. Probably I’ll work up some more felt projects to work on a big batch at once.

Skirt progress and pull toy

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My freedom skirt is coming along. It’s all stockinette right now which is relaxing to knit but not thrilling in the blog sense. I had cast on 200 stitches and didn’t bother to count anymore. Why bother? It was just stockinette right? Then the knitter’s intuition kicked in and told me to count my stitches. I did and had 199. What to do? Place stitch markers every 25 stitches and then more several inches down. Look for mistakes. Here’s what it looks like:

Freedom skirt

And I found my mistake. Somehow I had k2tog. I dropped down the one stitch, undid the k2tog and used a crochet hook and dpn to make two stitches per row. This photo shows the yarn color more truly:

Freedom skirt

Sieben is growing so fast. I made him a pull toy out of a thrifted jean skirt. Basically I cut the skirt into a long spiral piece of fabric then cut that into three pieces. I braided the strands and put several knots into it because he likes to chew on the knots. Here he is playing with me and Thebes.

Sieben with pull tug toy