update on the bunny slipper

I haven't actually posted pictures of the Fluffy Bunny Slippers yet, so I took the opportunity yesterday to do so while one of them didn't have the lower sole completely sewed on yet. Note, I haven't had a chance to put on any of the bunny aspects yet - the ears, eyes, nose - so these are pictures are of just the slipper portions.

Here's both slippers looking ready (click to enlarge):


The following is a photo of the unfinished slipper, which I am in the process of sewing together. The tapestry needle I'm using is on the top of the slipper, you can kind of see it hiding there. I'm using safety pins to hold the lower sole onto the rest of the slipper so that I don't accidentally sew it on lopsided. I had to resew the slipper top a few times because it kept on turning out crooked. The instructions aren't entirely clear where you're supposed to sew the lower sole to, so what I've done is sew it high enough for the crocheted edge (the V's) to cover up the seaming on the slipper, i.e. where the slipper top and the upper sole join.


Here's the same picture from above, but with lines drawn in for the various pieces.

1. This is the slipper top. It's shaped like the letter U, and is sewn to the upper sole.
2. This is the lower sole, and it's a big oblong shape.
3. This is the upper sole, another oblong shape but it is smaller and the stitches are tighter than the lower sole.
4. This isn't actually a piece sewed on. After the slipper top and upper sole are sewn together, you crochet around the foot opening. That's comprised of the portion of the upper sole not connected to the slipper top and the portion of the slipper top not connected to the upper sole.

I still need black buttons for the eyes. I also need to decide whether or not to embroider the nose on. Lawrence thinks it may look cuter without the nose. I'll see once I get the ears and eyes on.

people are in a knitting revelry over Ravelry.com

You just need to read the comments on their news blog to see how excited people are. It's so cute that they're all so excited over a knitting website. >.> Then again, I'm very excited too. I've only got 13,507 people ahead of me now, w00t! ::clicks Refresh again...and again...::

Knitty - Womb

Womb, from Knitty

I made a few of these several years ago to give to friends because they're SO cute! :) Whenever people see it, their first reaction is that it's cute. They start wondering what it is, and then they think: "No way, it can't be. It's not.....is it?" This one was actually the first one I made, and I screwed up on the bottom where the cervix is. As you can see in the photo, it just goes straight down. It's supposed to flare out a bit, like in the photos on the Knitty website. I actually have a properly flared Womb almost finished, but I still need to sew on the fallopian tubes and fill it with stuffing.

finally, some pictures

Here's the information, direct from the label for the 2 yarns I used for the Fluffy Bunny Slippers pattern found in The Happy Hooker.

Bernat - Natural Blends Cashmere
color: Petal
1 ball = 60g, 103 yds
65% acrylic/30% nylon/5% cashmere
gauge: 17s x 24r = 4" x 4" on US 8 needles/US H8 hook [medium 4]
care instructions: Hand wash, lay flat to dry. Wash gently by hand in water (not exceeding 30C/86F). After extraction of excess water, dry the article on a suitable flat surface. Do not bleach. Do not iron or press. Do not dry-clean.
Made in Canada.


Moda Dea - Dream
color: Waterlily
1 ball = 50g, 93 yds
57% nylon/43% acrylic
gauge: 16s x 23r = 4" x 4" on US 10 needles, 11sc x 13r = 4" x 4" on K-10.5 hook [medium 4]
care instructions: Hand wash, lay flat to dry. Do not iron, bleach, or machine dry. Dry cleanable with any solvent except trichloethylene.
Made in Italy.


The angle is a little strange, but here's a picture of me crocheting with both strands together:



My Comments
This was my first time using two strands of yarn together on a project. It was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be. It was easy to feel when I accidentally slipped the hook through just one yarn and not the other. These yarns were easy to crochet with, the loops slid smoothly off the hook (an aluminum size H/8 Boye hook) and I was able to maintain tension smoothly. The only problem I ever ran into was with the Bernat Cashmere yarn, being 4-ply, my hook would sometimes go through the yarn and snag on the plies. Both yarns are deliciously soft, not scratchy at all. I would definitely use these yarns for future projects. As for the bunny slippers themselves, they are not yet done. I'll put up pictures as soon as they are, but right now I still need to sew on one of the lower soles and then sew on the ears, eyes, and noses for both slippers.

pictures coming soon

I made Lawrence take pictures of my yarn last night. I was going to post about the yarn I used for the Fluffy Bunny Slippers because I spent a while trying to figure out what kind of yarn to use. But, he spent so much time taking and re-taking pictures to get just the right lighting that the batteries for his camera ran out and he couldn't upload them to the computer. :/ So pictures and yarn details will hopefully be coming tonight.

yarn buying strategies

I think discussion of accumulation strategies for yarn is needed. Oftentimes when I go yarn shopping, I end up contemplating exactly how much yarn to buy. Specifically:

• How many different scrumptious colors should I get?
• How many balls/skeins of each yarn on sale should I get?

The decision ultimately comes down to what I can make with the yarn. What usually ends up happening is that I want a little bit of everything! I buy one ball of this, one ball of that - one in each color so I can have them all! The problem with that is that I'm stuck with only being able to complete small projects. You can't make a sweater out of just one ball. But then...I'm also scared of big purchases. For some reason, buying 5 balls of one color of one yarn is a lot harder to do than 5 different balls of yarn. I want to break out of this habit, but I think that perhaps I should first find a larger project I want to commit to and specifically buying the yarn for it. That sounds a less scary than buying a whole bunch of a random yarn that I would have to continue to knit/crochet with.

On that note, this Crochet Butterfly Wrap Sweater from www.SuperCrafty.com is very cute! Both the short and long versions are so cute and I love the shape of it. Hm. I think it would go well with that blue-black goth-lacey dress I got from Nordstrom's. I could wear it to the Evanescence concert in November! :D That'd be awesome! I need to get on that...

I checked my place in the Ravelry line. There's still 15,384 people in front of me! They posted on their news blog that they are now able to invite 500-600 people in daily now. That's still another month before I can get in. ;_; Booooo.

don't start with the sewing...

While looking for cat sweater ideas for my aunt's cat, I came across a sewing pattern for a totally adorable little stuffed cat toy! This was the image that caught my eye on the Google search.

lessons in crochet

Working on these bunny slippers has taught me some new crochet techniques! The soles of the slippers are crocheted "in the spiral". Single/double crochets are made across the foundation row, and then continued around the underside, kind of like one of those assembly-line conveyor belts. It's joined to the first stitch of the "row" with a slip stitch. I spent a bit of time trying to figure out how to count the stitches to see if I ended up with the right number. I'm thinking of putting up more detailed instructions of what I learned (once Lawrence figures out how to use his new camera)!

more yarn!

I went to Michaels tonight and bought more yarn:
2 balls Bernat Cashmere Natural Blends (Petal/pink)
2 balls Moda Dea Dream (Waterlily/pink)
1 ball Bernat Alpaca Natural Blends (Indigo/blue)
1 ball Bernat Cashmere Natural Blends (Earth/brown)

The 4 balls of pink yarn are what I used to make the fluffy bunny slippers. I'm want to make another pair, as soon as I figure out what I'm going to do with them. Speaking of the slippers, I just had to frog 2 rounds of my crocheting, because I didn't read the instructions close enough and forgot to do 2 dc in one dc. Ugh. At least crochet works up quickly!

All that's left to do for the slippers is to crochet the pair of bottom soles, and then assemble all the pieces together! Lawrence's (I'm going to start referring to him by name...S.O. is just too awkward) new Nikon DSLR camera came today. That means - I can take pictures of my yarn and my knitting! WHEEE! :D

Fluffy Bunny Slippers

I'll put up my own picture after the SO's new digital camera arrives. In the meantime, here's a picture that someone else took of the Fluffy Bunny Slippers from Debbie Stoller's book: The Happy Hooker. I'm making a pair of these for my cousin Karin. I was thinking of giving them to her as a birthday present, but today is her birthday and the slippers are definitely not done yet. So, they have officially turned into a Christmas present. That, combined with perhaps a small glass jar of cute little knitted hearts should be good.

The trend continues as today my cousin Kenrick showed me these pictures of quilts of classic video game characters. He asked me to make him one of Link, jokingly I think. It doesn't matter, I think it sounds like a great idea! I probably don't know what I'm getting myself into, and it's probably going to be a lot more time consuming than I realize, but I want to try it! Since these old video games were 8-bit, designing the quilt is going to be a piece of cake.

the itch has returned

I may be talking about those bumps on my feet I thought were bug bites from my cousin's wedding rehearsal dinner 2 weeks ago that have for some ODD reason started itching again, but no. I am referring to the itch of my inner crafty self, long-suppressed by my addiction to World of Warcraft.

I used to knit, crochet, sew, and immerse myself in all manner of crafty ways. Now that I am not actively raiding in WoW anymore and I am actually making enough money to feed this old addic--aherm--hobby, I've felt the need to continue to MAKE thing. I have a respectably-sized stash of yarn that needs some lovin', more knitting needles and crochet hooks than I'd ever be able to use at once, loads of wire and beads, some fabric lying around, several of spools of thread, an actual sewing machine, and lots of origami paper.

I'm hoping I can turn this blog into a resource for the sites of all the other cool crafty-cats I come across on the internet. Warning: this may result in multiple posts per day.