Addicted to Ravelry

OMG, some of the posts are hilarious! Using old knitting needles as stakes for tomato and orchid plants...

Butterfly Wrap - I'm finally done with the right sleeve! I've started on the left one and I have 14 sleeve rows and 17 cuff rows left to go.

Baby Jellyfish Amigurumi Photo

Here's a photo of the finished baby jellyfish (pattern by Anapaulaoli), made with Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn.


I put the bunny slippers through the washer & dryer so they're a lot fuzzier now. But, after giving them to Lawrence to play with, somehow I'm missing a slipper so I won't have pictures of them up tonight.

Photos on Saturday

Lawrence forgot to bring home the camera again. BUT, we had to stop by his work place anyway to check up on an appointment he made for Saturday, so we did end up bringing the camera home. This means I can upload a ton of pictures tomorrow, yay!

Progress, all around

I finally got my invite to Ravelry yesterday! I spent all day on the site, and it looks pretty awesome. I will probably spend a large portion of Saturday entering project & yarn information.

Lawrence helped me sew the button eyes onto the bunny slippers, so they are also finally, um, non-eyeless! I think I'm supposed to wash them and let them dry to fluff them up a bit, and then they will be completely finished.

Unfortunately Lawrence left his Nikon at work so I'll have to wait for tonight to take pictures.

I am on the last row of the right sleeve before the lace work on the butterfly wrap. I may save that for when I get home just because I don't want to have to deal with losing my place in the pattern. Or I won't be able to help myself and I will work on the lace at every spare moment I get.

It's really a toss up because yesterday I started the mommy elephant amigurumi from Anapaulaoli. I finished stuffing the head last night, and as of this morning I've got 1 ear done. The other ear shouldn't take too long, and then there's the body and 4 legs. Making these is actually very fun! Even though the long stretches of single crochet are monotonous and make me impatient, I love how these things get created so quickly. It's like "Rows 4-11: sc 18" and you're like "4, 5, 6, ....that's 8 rows of single crochet...am i done yet? how many more rows?" But before you know it, you're decreasing and decreasing, and you've just got a little hole left for the stuffing. Like most crochet & knitting, the foundation row/chain and the first row are the most annoying.

The great thing about this elephant is that I get to use up the gigantic balls of blue yarn that my mom and I found in our garage many years ago. I don't know what the fiber is or what brand it is, I just know I have several huge balls of it. There are 4 plys and it splits easily if it becomes untwisted, which it tends to do. However, for some reason it has been fairly easy to work with for this elephant. That's good because I had no idea what I was going to do with all the yarn and it was just taking up space in my stash. On a side note, I think it would be very cute to tie little bow ribbons on these amigurumi.

Eyes

Eyes are an important anchor in a face. They bring soul to inanimate objects and can convey a variety of emotions and impressions.

That said, my bunny slippers are still missing their eyes. My [almost] complete baby jellyfish is also waiting for eyes. I need to finish them before I start to amass a horde of eyeless animals in my apartment. That could be pretty creepy.

#580 on Ravelry!

Amigurumi Jellyfish

No pictures, I forgot. :( I was busy last night going to Michaels (Vanna's Choice on sale for $2!), the supermarket, cooking food, going to the gym, and also trying out the amigurumi patterns I bought from Anapaulaoli!

I started with the baby jellyfish because I had some leftover cotton yarn. It's a natural off-white color, with random flecks of blue, red, yellow, and purple thrown in. It crocheted up really quickly - which, I suppose, isn't a surprise but I've never gotten that far on an amigurumi before. Before I knew it the instructions called for me to embroider the mouth and put on the eyes, but I had no eyes! Hence, I convinced Lawrence to drive me to Michaels so I could get eyes to finish the jellyfish. :) While I was there I also picked up 4 balls of Vanna's Choice in brick, chocolate, honey, and olive for another striped gift scarf.

As of this morning after the walk to the train station and the train ride to work, I have only 3 tentacles left to finish the jellyfish. :) I bet the mommy and daddy amigurumis would work up pretty quickly too. I could make pairs of them in a period of 2-3 days each and give those out as Christmas gifts!

OMG it dropped below 1000

I'm now at # 931 on the waitlist! XD

I'm planning to stop by Michaels tonight to get some more Vanna's Choice yarn for another Christmas scarf. This one is going to be asymmetrical vertical stripes in various earth tones. I'm almost done with the black & red scarf and will try to put up a picture of that tonight.

The edging on the butterfly wrap has been rather painful. Thank goodness those picots are over with. I am now working on one of the sleeves. It should be pretty straightforward until the lace detail at the cuff, so it's working out perfectly on schedule. I still have 2 weeks before the Nightwish concert.

Amigurumi

I bought these amigurumi patterns from Anapaulaoli at www.etsy.com

They are SO cute, and I can't wait to make a bunch to give to people as Christmas presents.

More Strangers on the train

The past 2 days I've been having encounters of a different kind with strangers on the train. The first day was when I forgot where I put my iPod so I didn't have anything stuck in my ears. The girl sitting next to me started asking me about how to get started with crochet. She took notes on her phone and asked me how I first learned, and where to buy yarn. On my walk from the train station to the apartment, a lady walking in the opposite direction admired my ability to crochet while walking. When I got home, there was a lady in the elevator who commented on my crochet and started talking about how her sister, mother, and grandmother all can crochet but she was never able to. The next day I actually did have my headphones on (I found my iPod in my purse, doh!). But the lady sitting next to me, as well as this old Asian lady sitting in front of me both started admiring my crocheting and asking me questions.

I don't know why there is suddenly all this interest when I've been crocheting on the train for the past month now. Here are some possible ideas I threw around in my head.

• iPod - Having headphones on stops conversations before they can even start because people assume you don't want to be bothered. Sometimes this is true. This also does not deter some people from bothering you anyway.
• Project specific interest - One interesting point about these past few days is that I've been working on a scarf. It's a very bold black with a red stripe running vertically, and I can work very quickly on it because it's only single crochet with a large hook. Maybe as a more fun project, it's more approachable to ask about than say my lacy butterfly wrap, which uses thin yarn, a tiny hook, and no color other than black. Other women look at the scarf and it piques their interest because they think to themselves "Hey that's pretty and it looks easy, I can do that."
  
• Familiarity - Maybe these people have seen me on the train before and decided to comment because I happened to sit next to them.
• Gender - Maybe I sat next to too many men before.
• Clothing - Maybe I dress better now so people don't think I'm some weirdo.
  

#2889

...on Ravelry. I'm estimating 3-4 more days before I get my invite! :D

Lion Brand - Vanna's Choice yarn

I've read some differing opinions of this yarn on the Knitter's Review forums. Some thought it felt strange and too scratchy, not soft enough. Others found nothing wrong with it and appreciated the value (it's only $2.49-2.99).

When I first felt it I wasn't impressed, but after buying some and crocheting with it, I must say that it definitely isn't as scratchy as Red Heart acrylics, nor as stiff feeling as some of the wools. It doesn't slide that easily on my hook, but then maybe it's because my hook is too small. The wrapper calls for size J, and I'm using size I.

One thing that is nice, and I suppose would make sense since they say that Vanna is an avid crocheter, is that the yarn does not split easily. That is the one thing that has annoyed me about working on my Butterfly Wrap - it's so easy for my hook to split the Jojoland yarn if I'm not careful. The Vanna's Choice yarn is wound more tightly or something - haha, or maybe it's just because it's thicker! Come to think of it, I've never crocheted with thicker yarns before. :)

Strangers on the train

On the train home from work today, there was an old man. He didn't speak English, but he signaled me for my attention. He pointed at my crocheting and pointed at his eyes and then made negative motions. I gathered that he was trying to tell me to stop crocheting on the train or else I'll ruin my eyes. I didn't want to bother trying to argue with an old man I couldn't even communicate with so I put my crocheting away. Oh well. Instead I took out the pattern and started reading ahead on the edging and sleeves.

Yesterday a friend I met from World of Warcraft asked me for a knitted scarf. That should be easy enough. I shot him a series of questions about his preferences (because I know he's rather picky about some things) and decided to do a black scarf with one off-center vertical dark red stripe. I figured that it might take too long to knit and so I'm going to crochet it. I also thought this would be a good chance to practice some Tunisian Crochet. I could either do it length-wise or width-wise. If I do it length-wise, the dark red yarn will only take 3-4 rows. If I do it width-wise, then I'd need to do 3-4 stitches of red on every row, meaning I'd have to do intarsia. I suppose it would be a good opportunity to practice that too...even if that means it would be really annoying to do. If I crochet it the easier way, length-wise, I'd have to use regular crochet because my hook isn't long enough for an entire scarf. However, regular crochet isn't as thick as Tunisian crochet, and so wouldn't be as warm - and that was one specific characteristic my friend asked for.

On my way home from work today, I decided to go to Jo-Ann and the local yarn store, Skein. It was a nice little yarn store, with all the yarns nicely stacked in little cubbies everywhere. There were a ton of books, magazines, and binders full of patterns. There was also a table in the back where you can get knitting help. There were a bunch of people there knitting when I arrived at 5:30pm. I decided it would be a good idea to make a lace scarf/shawl for my mom for Christmas, but the mohair yarns were so expensive...either I'd have to make it smaller or I'll have to find a cheaper alternative. I didn't end up buying any of the books or the yarn because it was too much for me to justify when I already had another project I had planned to start. I did however buy a Tunisian hook because I wasn't sure if Jo-Ann would have any. At Jo-Ann, I bought 3 balls of black Vanna's Choice yarn and 1 ball of cranberry worsted Wool-ease. Not bad for $10. I didn't even have a 50% off coupon on me.

As soon as I got home I tried Tunisian knit stitch with the black and red yarns together. Perhaps I was a little too ambitious. It was hard to tell where I was supposed to put the hook, and some of the stitches didn't look quite right. I took out the red and used only black with regular simple Tunisian, and the crocheting started to curl severely after just a few rows. I looked it up and found out that it's *supposed* to curl. Tunisian is back-heavy on the yarn, causing the yarn to pull in a way the curls the bottom edge, the same as a knitted stockinette stitch. It helps to crochet very loosely and use a larger hook, but I don't think my hook is big enough for the fabric to not curl. I think I'll just crochet this normally and save the Tunisian for something simpler. OR...I could try using the knitting loom I bought! I would probably need to double the yarn and then learn to do intarsia on a loom.

I got an e-mail tonight saying the ribbon I ordered has been shipped. w00t! Must...finish...wrap...

Project update

Fuzzy Bunny Slippers - In my rush to finish the butterfly wrap and perpetual procrastination when it comes to finishing things, these cute little things have been put aside. All I need to do really is to sew on the buttons. But then, I have to use a smaller needle because my tapestry needle won't fit through the holes on the buttons. Well, if I do that I probably can't use the embroidery thread I bought because it's too thick to fit through the eye of a smaller needle. Yeah. It's just too much hassle when I have the butterfly wrap to finish. Most likely, I'll just sit down and get it over with this weekend once I have a sizable chunk of free time and no pressing need to work on the store website.

Hearts - I did completely finish 4 of these. However, I wasn't entirely happy with the eyes I embroidered. I think I will get some beads for future hearts. The 1 heart I didn't like the most, I took with me to my aunt's home in Temecula for her cat to play with. Again, as long as I can crochet my butterfly wrap on the train, making more of these will be on hold. Oh, and I need to go to Ikea to get some suitable jars. Once I have something I can watch fill up, I'll have more of an incentive to make more hearts.

Butterfly Wrap - I finished the back, front right, and front left partial panels yesterday after work. While I was waiting for Lawrence to get off work at the Maserati dealership, I seamed the pieces at the shoulder and connected them at bottom by starting the waist detailing. They have these nice plush leather seats at the dealership that were very comfy to lounge and crochet in. The waist detailing is basically 4 rows of rectangular holes that the ribbons will be woven through.

While working on the front partial panels, I ran into an issue. It took me a while to think it through but I think there's an error in the pattern. I've only looked at it for the L size, so I don't know if it applies to the other sizes (I think it does). First off, the back partial panel is supposed to be 28 rows when finished. The left front partial panel is 21 rows for the rectangular portion with 8 rows of shaping. This gives you 29 rows (21+8=29?), although the pattern indicates there should be 28 rows. The right front partial panel is only 20 rows for the rectangular portion, and 8 rows for the neck shaping, and it indicates there should be 28 rows total. I think somewhere either before the shaping or on the first row of the shaping, the instructions skipped a row. The first row of the neck shaping says to chain 7 and shl in the next ch-1 sp. That only makes sense if I crochet in the pattern to the end of that row because the start is a 3-dc motif while the end is the shl motif. I did that to keep with the patterning, and so I end up with an extra row, or 29 rows. This makes sense since the left front panel turned out to be 29 rows as well. However, this means I was short 1 row on the back panel, so I went and crocheted an extra row. I love that about crochet - try doing that with knitting!

This was the only big problem I had with the pattern. There were some other things I would nitpick at, specifically consistency in wording and punctuation but it was nothing I couldn't figure out. Although...I think the Main Body Trim section was accidentally printed twice. I'll have to e-mail them at StitchDiva to get some clarification on this. If anyone reading this is working on this pattern and having trouble, let me know and I'd be happy to help.

Stroke of genius

I hate throwing anything away. Lawrence is constantly frustrated at how much junk we've [I've] accumulated and how it creates a never-ending mass of things that need to be cleaned or put away. So, when he tried to throw away his Diesel jeans, I squeed at him and cried inside. They're a beautiful dark blue, thick, solid jean fabric. He had bought 3 pairs because they were on sale. I ended up wearing them. Turns out he didn't like the fit.

He complains that I always save up all this stuff with the idea that it will be good for something one day, but I never actually do anything with it, and indeed end up going out to buy more new materials. Well. Today, I figured out what I can make with those jeans - a shopping bag! These alternatives to your standard market plastic/paper bags are getting popular, why not make myself one? I don't know if I can even bring myself to cut up the pants, the stitching on the seams is very nice. They're very nice jeans. >_< If I lose enough weight I'd be able to fit in them again.

Swift and winder

If I start dyeing or spinning yarn, I'm really going to need a yarn swift and ball winder. A yarn swift is a large wooden folding contraption that can extend or retract its arms to hold your hanks of yarn. It also has a center post that allows it spins around. You use it in conjunction with a ball winder. A ball winder is a small device that you manually crank. It pulls the yarn from a swift (causing the swift to turn) and wraps it around a post to create a nice, loose, yarn "cake."

I want one. Of each - a swift and a winder. I don't want to order them for myself right now because I feel like I've already been spending so much money. I probably will anyway. They're on sale on the Joann website - $41.99 for the swift, $34.99 for the nicer winder. OMG, they're on sale! I don't know how long these sales last for, but the website says yarn winders are on sale for 30% off this week, and that's why they are on sale. Combine that with the free shipping coupon (on orders over $35), anda 50% off one item coupon, and this could be a very good deal!

Naturally dyeing yarn, after the class

Last night I barely caught the bus to get to the Urban Craft Center out in Santa Monica. I was already cutting it close, but there were just a few things I "had" to finish up - like actually looking up how to get there. I ran down the stairs, walked briskly to the corner and realized I didn't bother to lookup which direction the bus would be going, and hence I had no idea which corner I was supposed to be on. I saw the triangular Big Blue Bus sign for the Santa Monica buses for the side of the street I was on. As I wondered if that was the right stop, I saw a big blue bus across the street going in the other direction. Years of riding public transportation cause my eyes to snap to the display at the top of the front of the bus...."10 Santa Monica...3rd street..." Lucky for me, as the bus was stopped the light changed and I could cross the street. I swear I left work with at least a few minutes to spare. The bus must have been early.

I really think it was early, because by the time I got off at my stop in Santa Monica it was only 5:33pm, when it was supposed to be at least 5:40pm. A quick look around and I found the next bus stop I was supposed to wait at for the #5 bus that goes down Olympic. I got off at Stewart, and proceeded to wander around looking for this Urban Craft Center place. I thought it was going to be its own building and would have a big sign making it easy to find. Haven't I learned enough times not to make assumptions? Murphy's Law.

In any case, the area was very interesting. Apparently the UCC is in a complex called the Santa Monica Studios. Every door was a different sort of cool indie-type company. There were recording studios, dance studios, art studios/galleries, acting studios, graphics companies, leatherworkers...all manner of just totally cool stuff. Unfortunately I was also pretty lost. I had to call Lawrence to ask him to look on the UCC website for the map. He got frustrated with me while I tried to reconcile my immediate surroundings with his description of relative layout of the building, the Pit, the Cafe, and the parking lots. Eventually, I figured out where the UCC was supposed to be and made it there in time. The artsy community residing in this industrial location reminded me of Berkeley's 4th street, another industrial area full of warehouses turned artsy.

I've never been to a craft class before so I didn't have an idea of what to expect. There were only 2 of us there for the class, and although it would have been nice to see them more active, I liked the intimacy and access you get by having a 2:1 student to teacher ratio. It was a nice spacious studio, with high ceilings and a sort of loft area where they had a library and some reading tables. The ground level was spacious but there were supplies and tools for all sorts of crafty ventures scattered around the edges of the room as well as nicely tucked away in tall cabinets. They even had some nice comfy upholstered chairs (of the type perfect for knitting/crocheting in).

Since this was a natural dyeing class, we used cochineal (an insect) for purpley red color, onion skins for an orangey color, dahlia flowers for yellow, and a plant called madder for brown. The cochineal and bark had to be ground into powder before being used. All the dye materials were boiled in water. We then put in hanks of Knitpick's Bare yarn that had been treated with mordant and soaked in water. Note: the water used in the boiling must be distilled water, or you may get unexpected color variations from the metals and minerals in the water. After the yarn has boiled long enough in the dye water to give you the color you want, you let it cool off. Then, you rinse out the yarn. You need to get out as much excess dye as you can or else the texture of the yarn when it dries will be off. That means rinsing the yarn until the water runs [nearly] clear. Let the yarn hang on a rack to dry, and you're done! We took our yarn home in ziplock baggies, to finish drying at home. Since I didn't have a drying rack, I rigged something up using 2 barstools , 2 brooms, and 2 rolls of toilet paper.

I really want to go home and play with my yarn! :) I will also probably give in and buy the swift & winder from Joann's. I found a 50% off coupon, but the sucky thing is it's 50% off the regular price. Also, you can only use 1 promotion code per order so I can't add in the free shipping coupon.

Natural dyeing class at the Urban Craft Center

I've wanted to take dyeing and spinning classes for a while now. While browsing around the Craftster forums, I saw someone mention this place in a post: The Urban Craft Center.

It's a communal workspace for crafters of all kinds, located in Santa Monica. You pay by the day(s) for a pass to use their space and tools. They've got a long list of craft mediums they support listed on their website. In addition, they offer private lessons and host craft classes. They are currently running a 12-class series called "The Well Rounded Crafter." These introductory classes cover everything from journal-binding to screen printing, and of course fiber dyeing and spinning. There are still 9 classes left, including the Natural Dyeing class scheduled for today. Next week is the Hand Spinning class. It's nice that some of the classes tie in with each other. You can use the roving you dye today for the spinning class next week. Classes aren't too expensive either - the dyeing and spinning classes are $55 & $45, respectively. I plan to take the bus over there, which should take about an hour. Lawrence will then pick me up at 9pm because he's afraid of me walking around that area of Santa Monica alone at night. :)

Quality over quantity

Time flies - it's already been nearly a week since I last posted. In that time I have been busily working on the butterfly wrap, putting the final touches on my retail business' website, and making an effort to spend more quality time with Lawrence.

It's been a pleasure working on the butterfly wrap, especially since it's been working up rather quickly. I ordered the ribbon yesterday. I ended up choosing the color Lobelia. It's a darker bluish color than the other options, but slightly variated so hopefully it will be good for matching other outfits as well. I've got the back partial panel and the front left partial panel finished, and I only need a few more rows of the front right partial panel. Once that's complete, I can seam them together and start crocheting down for the bottom half of the wrap. After that, only the sleeves, finishing, and ribbon ties are left. Haha, okay, so maybe that's still quite a bit, but it does not feel as daunting as when I first downloaded the pattern! The pattern itself is quite simple, it's basically a repeating series of dc stitches, shells, and chains. Once you have the first row, all the other rows follow the same pattern - you just need to look at the previous row to know what's next, not that it's even a hard pattern to understand. Again, it works up so much more quickly than knitting.

I almost feel like I'm betraying my knitting, but I think I am starting to like crochet more than knitting. You can do 3D objects, cool lace work that isn't difficult, and whatever shape you crochet all you need is a hook. As an additional bonus, I don't feel so weird crocheting while walking. I saw a top on Craftster this morning that I really loved. It would make a great project for me to do next, but I would need to lose some weight first. The garment in question is the Dahlia top found at Labrajogo's Etsy store. It's made with crochet thread, which makes it much finer than the wrap I'm working on right now. Given the surface area of the top, I'm sure it would take much longer to finish as well. Regardless, the detail on the Dahlia is beautiful! The creator took 3 months making it, frogging and reworking rows to get the fit just right. I wouldn't mind doing that if I knew the result would be so beautiful.

Usually I stay away from thin sport weight, fingering weight yarns because it seems like it will take forever before an object starts to look like anything recognizable. As a result, most of the yarns I stock up on are bulky. This results in me making only bulky items with my bulky yarn. As I start to wear things made with bulky yarn I realize how this can be a problem. Even a scarf that's too bulky, wrapped around my neck, will make me look like I have a double chin and no neck. Part of this may be tied into the fuzzy yarns I love to buy. I'm not talking about the boa-like fun furs, but the insanely soft fuzzy yarns like Sirdar's Snowflake. Unfortunately these yarns all tend to be bulky. Stitches also end up being very undefined. The finished object is a fuzzy mass, making patterns with intricate stitching completely pointless.

Lately I feel myself being drawn more towards the no-nonsense non-fuzzy yarns, the ones that give you well defined stitches. I've always been interested in working more complicated patterns, but again, that hasn't been possible with my yarn selection.

Stitch Cafe & Butterfly Wrap progress

Last night I made Lawrence drive me out to North Hollywood so I could visit a yarn store - Stitch Cafe. It was a small store with many shelves, baskets, and racks full of yummy yummy yarns. We went specifically on a Thursday because that's when they're open until 9pm. Other days they are only open until 6pm, and of course Lawrence doesn't get off work until 6:30pm. Wednesday night looked like a get-together night because there were a bunch of people knitting together in the front section of the store.

I went specifically looking for Hanah silk cording to use in my Butterfly Wrap. The Artemis website lists Stitch Cafe as a retailer that carries Hana silk ribbons. Silly me, I did not think that meant they may only stock specific ribbons. At the store I realized they didn't have the cording I needed. They only carried the regular silk ribbons. Regardless, the ladies at the store were very willing to help and so friendly! They immediately made me feel comfortable, and also pointed me to the yarns out back that were on sale for 30% off. Even though I didn't find what I specifically came for, I loved browsing through all the beautiful yarns, and I even bought 2 hanks of sale yarns. I don't know what I'll use them for, but they're beautiful nonetheless. I suppose it would be easier to just buy the silk cording online instead of calling all the different yarn stores to the one that carries it at least an hour away. Now...what color should I get? :( Should it match the dress? Complement the dress? Shouldn't I pick a color that would be easily matched by the other clothes in my wardrobe? Then again, what other clothes do I even have that would match this wrap? Ahhh!

On another note, so far I've finished 7 rows of the back panel for the butterfly wrap. It definitely isn't perfect so far, but I'm torn between wanting to get it done as soon as I can for the concerts,
and wanting to start over now that I have a better insight into how loose to make the stitches. I reread the pattern and this wrap is worked top-down. That means that my *worst* and loosest rows, the initial ones, will be right up at the top. Being so loose, the might make for a strange fit up top. I don't know if the size I chose is correct either, it does seem a little big so far. Maybe it's supposed to be like that? I can't really tell until I finish the other panels and start putting it together. I suppose if it's too big I could wear it for the concerts and then gift it to someone else. I'd really much rather make something nicer the first time around. Even if I decide to restart it in a smaller size...what if that smaller size is too small?

O_o I'm probably just going to continue and hope for the best. If it turns out to be way too big, I could always frog the panels and start over. It shouldn't be too difficult if I don't actually knot the yarn ends together, and it's not like I have to use lots of small lengths of thread.

yarn in the mail

Receiving a package of yarn in the mail makes me so happy! :D The 12 balls of black sport weight yarn I bought off of eBay came today. I'm using them to crochet a Butterfly Wrap (pattern from StitchDiva). IF I can get this finished in November, I'll be able to wear it with my dress to the Nightwish and/or Evanescence concerts! The pattern itself isn't that difficult. The only thing I'm worried about is the tension. I don't want it to be too loose, or too tight, but at least since it's a wrap and will be tied....it probably won't matter very much.

finished Hearts

Here are the Hearts (designed by Anna at Mochimochi Land) I've finished, with their uh, interesting expressions. Adding embroidery for facial expressions is something I'm new to. I've seen some really cute pieces that had so much character to them just by having a slight curve to the mouth. I hope I get the opportunity to practice this some more.

KnitPro from microRevolt

I just found an awesome resource through the Craftster forums! It's a very simple and easy to use little online tool called KnitPro. What it does is transform your digital images into knit, needlepoint, cross-stitch, or crochet patterns. It accepts .gif, .jpg, and .png files less than 1MB - outputing the patterns as .pdf files. They also offer ratio options (specifically because knitting isn't 1:1).



I can even see this being useful for some basic quilting…like that Link quilt I wanted to make! Here's what it did with the little 11x37px Link sprite image I dug up.

almost Finished Objects

The bunny slippers have had their ears since yesterday. I went to JoAnn's yesterday to buy the black button eyes, but today when I tried to sew them on I realized my tapestry needle was too thick to go through the button holes. DOH! As I considered my options, I worked on the only other project I had on hand - the Hearts from MochimochiLand. Anna has some cool knitted toy patterns for free and for sale on her website.