Crafting Chaos

Leaves and a scarf

I’ve made more leaves for the Green Man. This is some wool I bought at that sweet yarn sale I went to last year.

I’m planning on felting these.

In other knitting news, I’ve started a scarf for my friend Helen. I’m going to make her a version of my scarf hoodie.

I’m using my handspun three ply and the Mountain Colors yarn I bought in Seattle.

1 comment March 5th, 2010

My furry assistant helps with the Green Man

I’ve been sewing, sewing, sewing leaves onto the Green Man. Prana has been helping:

I’ve been working on a new leaf. I found this pattern via Crafty Galore’s blog. This is acrylic boucle so I took Prana’s cat brush to fluff up the leaves.

Speaking of Prana, he wanted to help with the photoshoot:

This is one of my favorite photos of him. I call it “Prana in the wooly jungle”

Add comment February 25th, 2010

Light at the end of the sweater tunnel

I’m so close to being done with Thebes’ sweater. Here it is blocking:

I started this sweater back in September! After it’s dry I’ll put in the zipper and it will be done. We got some more snow here so Thebes will be able to wear it some before spring.

Sieben and I took a walk the other day. He was so excited about the snow it was hard to get a non blurry picture of him. Here he is running by me:

Add comment February 24th, 2010

More Green Man leaves

I’ve been working on more leaves for the Green Man. These are my Pinon branches:

I knit I-cord and then threaded bits of green yarn randomly through them. It took awhile but I’m pretty happy with the results.

The next batch are rain forest leaves.

Like I’ve mentioned before Prana loves the Green Man project. He insisted on being in this photot shoot. Apparently he thinks the leaves need more felting:

1 comment February 10th, 2010

Leaves, leaves, leaves

I used up all of my green bulky handspun yarn to make these leaves:

Hand felting over sixty leaves is no easy task! I didn’t realize one of my gloves had a small hole. In addition to sore arms I also got a blister on my finger. See, I’m suffering for my art! hehe

When I laid out the leaves to dry I blocked them in various ways. Some curl inwards; others have their tips curling up. I think that makes them look more realistic.

Next up is my interpretation of rhododendron leaves. Thebes and I saw rhododendrons many times when we were hiking the Appalachian Trail and they were by far our favorite flower. Since this is acrylic yarn these won’t be blocked. I went with garter stitch to hold the shape.

I have over twenty of these.

Now I’m working on Juniper leaves. I’m making small lengths of I-cord and them sewing them together randomly. This yarn came from the yarn sale at the Harwood Museum. Abbey blogged about that here. It’s wool of some sort.

When bunched up together they look more like Juniper leaves to me. After they’re done I’ll be making Pinon leaves.

3 comments January 20th, 2010

Knit dog bed

Remember the crochet dog bed?

It was going along fine at first. But then it started to get lumpy. I tried to compensate by adding an extra stitch here and there but it kept getting worse. Maybe I could have fixed it. Instead I said fuck it and frogged the whole thing while in a sour mood.

Then I cast on fifty stitches and started knitting.

It’s nice and flat. But it’s hard to knit because the fabric yarn is so thick.

Maybe I’ll frog this too and just sew Sieben a bed. Thankfully he already has a comfy dog bed so he’s not waiting for this one.

3 comments January 12th, 2010

Grant’s Chicken Hat

Grant’s Chicken Hat is done and ready to be shipped out.

When I first saw a picture of this I knew I had to make it for Grant. I think he’ll love it.

He’s a big guy so this hat is tailored to his head. He came to visit this past summer and I took several head measurements. Shaping the top was a pain and took me at least five times to get right.

Lots of knitters on Ravelry commented about the chicken legs being difficult to make. Lighted Window’s revision was recommended and I followed her directions for the legs. I stuffed them with some stuffing from my stash. The claws are I-cord.

I made braided ties for the closure.

This hat was not fun to knit. There was lots of cursing and two rounds of time out. But the end product is hilarious and makes the process worth it.

Pattern: Chicken Viking Hat
Source: Aloha Media, Lighted Window
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish DK, 1.5 skeins of Nutmeg, 1 skein of Persimmon Heather, both superwash
Needles: 4.0 mm
Size: custom
Modifications: several, see above
Started: November 2009
Finished: December 2009

1 comment January 4th, 2010

Sweater progress

The body of Thebes sweater is finished and I’ve moved onto the sleeves.

This Malabrigo yarn has been a real bitch. It’s super soft and a joy to knit. But this one dye lot is wildly variegated. The bottom ribbing part of the sweater was knit with two balls. The top part in stockinette was knit with a third ball. It looked like a different color:

I was pretty pissed and put the sweater in time out. Thebes assured me it didn’t bother him and he’d wear the sweater anyway. But I couldn’t let it go. I frogged the stockinette part. Then I did two rows of the more greenish/blueish yarn and then two rows of the blueish/greenish yarn. I went back and forth that way until the top was done.

It looks a lot better but again, what a pain. I’m not sure I’ll work with Malabrigo again. At first I was concerned about the zigzags of color on the main body. When Thebes tried it on it looked fine so I’m leaving it as is.

I bought ten bags of this colorway and about half are a different color than the other. And yet I’ve triple checked and they’re all the same dye lot. Gah!?!

I’m working the sleeves in the same fashion. So far they’re turning out fine.

2 comments January 3rd, 2010

Chicken legs

I’ve decided that Grant’s turkey hat is really a chicken. This project has been a bitch to knit. What a pain. But it’s so funny I stuck with it. Here’s the legs:

I did I-cord for the claws.

Sieben and I went on a walk the other day. He loves the snow. Here’s him looking super cute:

3 comments December 31st, 2009

Knit cat

My friend Sera’s daughter’s birthday is in January. I knit her up another toy. I made her an owl and hat a couple years ago.

This is the cat from the World of Knitted Toys book. I used leftover Brooks Farm Acero yarn from Thebes’ kilt hose.

Her daughter currently loves cats but Sera is allergic. So I knit a kitty for her.

I ignored gauge and just found a yarn and corresponding needles to make the pattern. I embroidered the facial details. The whiskers were my idea and they’re my favorite bit.

I think it’s so cute! I gave it to Sera and she likes it too.

Pattern: Cat
Source: World of Knitted Toys
Yarn: Acero from Brooks Farm, 420 yards, wool/silk/viscose mix, not even half a skein
Needles: 2.5 mm
Size: NA
Modifications: embroidered facial details and whiskers
Started: December 2009
Finished: December 2009

Add comment December 23rd, 2009