I don't think I mentioned before, I am having entirely too much fun making pom poms with my pom pom makers. Even if an item has no pom poms, I make a little one to tie the fabric care label on with. What fun! Pom pom pom!
Saturday, 23 January 2010
Teeny teddy bear
This little bear doesn't photograph well, but he's done. Sitting down he's just a bit over 3 inches tall. A tiny bear for a tiny baby!
Friday, 22 January 2010
Baby Jayne Cobb hat
This crochet beanie is my homage to the hat made for Jayne Cobb in Firefly by his Ma. I made a few adaptations due to its intended recipient being around 3 months old.
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Turniphead hat
I decided to make the turniphead hat in 3-6 month size. It's a mix of two patterns - the hat is knit from one book and the topping crocheted from another.
As I was making it, I was a little unsure about the yarn choice, but I think it works with the fluffy top.
If I use the hat pattern again, I think I'll cut out a bunch of the straight rows, as this hat is much taller/longer than it looks in the photo (the brim is rolled up more than recommended). I won't know whether the size around the head is right until the recipient can try it on, and have included a length of yarn so her mum can roll the brim as needed and secure it in the right position.
Friday, 15 January 2010
Thursday, 14 January 2010
HWB cover, redux
I crocheted around the edge, since sewing up badly knitted dark variagated yarn seemed like a bad plan. ;)
Still not perfect, but no longer makes me gnash my teeth when I look at it!
Still not perfect, but no longer makes me gnash my teeth when I look at it!
What next?
I'm currently torn between a few projects I'd like to start. I don't like to have more than one thing on the go as with my space cadet brain I tend to lose track of what's going on. The candidates are:
I also have recently bought wool for some other projects, but they're not grabbing me as much at the moment:
Things I want to make but haven't got materials for yet:
I also have a deep longing to make some afghans when my new big hooks arrive from Purplelinda.
Before I do anything, though, I need to suck it up and fix my hot water bottle cover sewing. It really is dreadful.
- A little deep-orange amigurumi bear for the tiny baby of a friend
- A garter-stitch-squares blanket for the same baby
- A simple little hat for the same baby
- Some purple booties for, yes, the same baby (what is it with babies and wanting to knit?)
- A rainbow scarf and mittens (in gorgeous Mini Mochi wool) for me, me, me!
- A little purple amigurumi hippo for a friend at work who is hippo-mad
I also have recently bought wool for some other projects, but they're not grabbing me as much at the moment:
- A hot water bottle cover for D - just can't face this so close on the heels of the last one!
- A flower scarf for an as-yet undetermined recipient
- A non-flower scarf for another as-yet undetermined recipient
- A spanish square afghan - I made one spanish square and am trying to decide if the end result will be worth it
Things I want to make but haven't got materials for yet:
- Lamb toilet roll covers for friends/family for Easter
- Christmas mouse (and possibly Christmas cracker) ornaments, also for friends/family for Christmas
- Amigurumi kit for a friend
- Crochet hook and knitting needle cases for myself
I also have a deep longing to make some afghans when my new big hooks arrive from Purplelinda.
Before I do anything, though, I need to suck it up and fix my hot water bottle cover sewing. It really is dreadful.
Knitted hot water bottle cover
I've always thought that I should be able to knit. You can make a lot of nice things with knitting, and it's suited to things that crochet really isn't by virtue of being stretchier and thinner. So I got a copy of Knitty Gritty by Aneeta Patel and proceeded to learn. Yes, you CAN learn out of a book, if you pick the right book.
I started on the Chunky Scarf, but my heart wasn't in it. I have a lot of scarves already, and I'm not too keen on the chunky style. So I decided to forge my own path and jump into making the Hot Water Bottle Cover instead. Like every other human on the planet, my motivation is vastly increased when I am interested in the outcome of my endeavours.
As a first project, I think it didn't go too badly. My tension was VERY tight for the first half of the first side, which means that both sides are not equally sized or quite the same shape. I can live with that, though, as an improvement is evident. Funnily enough, I read a knitting mystery recommended by someone in my book group (Knit One Kill Two by Maggie Sefton) and it was reading about the heroine's struggle to learn to knit that clued me in that my stitches shouldn't be so tight on the needles that I had to forcibly shove them along. This was one thing that Knitty Gritty neglected to mention. ;)
Where I did go wrong was with the sewing up. I have very good instructions for sewing up, but I was so pleased at finishing the knitting that I just dived in and wrecked the poor thing. My cack-handed attempt at blanket stitching isn't too noticable on the moss stitch section, but is dreadful on the stocking stitche edges, both the one where I did it on the inside and the one where I did it on the outside. Just dreadful. I think my next step is going to be trying to rip it out without destroying the knitted part and trying to crochet the edges together. I should practice proper sewing up, but another thing I only started halfway through the first side was a tip I got from a knitting magazine: always make your first and last stitch of any row a knit stitch to give you a nice bar for sewing up with.
As a friend pointed out, at least the hot water bottle fits inside it. That's a definite plus. ;) And I do like the buttons that D. (always a trooper when it comes to going into shops to buy things he doesn't know anything about) picked out for it. :)
Anyway, here it is. The lighting's not very good and when I've re-attached it to itself I'll try to take a better picture!
I started on the Chunky Scarf, but my heart wasn't in it. I have a lot of scarves already, and I'm not too keen on the chunky style. So I decided to forge my own path and jump into making the Hot Water Bottle Cover instead. Like every other human on the planet, my motivation is vastly increased when I am interested in the outcome of my endeavours.
As a first project, I think it didn't go too badly. My tension was VERY tight for the first half of the first side, which means that both sides are not equally sized or quite the same shape. I can live with that, though, as an improvement is evident. Funnily enough, I read a knitting mystery recommended by someone in my book group (Knit One Kill Two by Maggie Sefton) and it was reading about the heroine's struggle to learn to knit that clued me in that my stitches shouldn't be so tight on the needles that I had to forcibly shove them along. This was one thing that Knitty Gritty neglected to mention. ;)
Where I did go wrong was with the sewing up. I have very good instructions for sewing up, but I was so pleased at finishing the knitting that I just dived in and wrecked the poor thing. My cack-handed attempt at blanket stitching isn't too noticable on the moss stitch section, but is dreadful on the stocking stitche edges, both the one where I did it on the inside and the one where I did it on the outside. Just dreadful. I think my next step is going to be trying to rip it out without destroying the knitted part and trying to crochet the edges together. I should practice proper sewing up, but another thing I only started halfway through the first side was a tip I got from a knitting magazine: always make your first and last stitch of any row a knit stitch to give you a nice bar for sewing up with.
As a friend pointed out, at least the hot water bottle fits inside it. That's a definite plus. ;) And I do like the buttons that D. (always a trooper when it comes to going into shops to buy things he doesn't know anything about) picked out for it. :)
Anyway, here it is. The lighting's not very good and when I've re-attached it to itself I'll try to take a better picture!
Amigurumi snowman
A dear friend of mine has a little baby who was unfortunate enough to be in hospital just before Christmas. They returned home just before the holidays and so I cranked this out the evening before Christmas Eve as a cheerful little present.
As always, there as aspects I'm not happy with (I didn't attach the arms in the best positions, so he's sort of a stop-don't-shoot! snowman) but I think he turned out cute and they seemed to like him. :) And he was the start of my whee-amigurumi-is-fun craze, so all due credit to him for that. ;)
I used the Sparkles the Snowman pattern from Super Cute Crochet: Make Your Own Amigurumi Family by Nicki Trench. I changed his scarf to a rib stitch and am not at all convinced that I made his hat correctly!
New blog!
I have a habit of starting new blogs and then not going anywhere with them... but I wanted to record the crafting I've been doing lately. Hopefully I'll remember to update this as and when!
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