Finished my Garden Scarf

Here it is! :D This is the Garden Scarf from The Happy Hooker. I made a 2-leaf chain using instructions I found here. To keep the scarf in place, I merely cross the ends and stick one of the leaves through 2 overlapping holes. Instant wearable cuteness! :D

Scarf Pictures

3 scarves, with pictures!

Sly's scarf - I designed it myself, although it was more *ahem* improvised than designed.


Ela's scarf - I need another ball of the brown to finish this up. This is the Stars (and Stripes) Forever scarf from The Happy Hooker, but modified for 3 colors instead of 4. Lawrence said adding in the red would be overkill.


Mom's scarf - This is the Party Lace Scarf, without beads.

Bunny Slipper pictures!

Here they are! :) One of them is a little wonky, he looks confused.

While (yarn<infinity) { yarn+=100; project+=1;}

The yarn I ordered from Knit Picks arrived last week! I picked it up yesterday because I didn't realize it would ship SO quickly! I made my order on Sunday, Oct. 28th, and apparently the package arrived at the end of the week. I didn't even check the mail because I thought it would take 2 weeks minimum. Then Lawrence told me yesterday that when he checked the mail, there was a package notification slip...which must have been my package of yarn!

I bought several skeins of lace weight yarn in colorways that were on sale. In fact, I think they still have more of it that's on sale because they're making room for more colors. Of course, I ordered $47-worth of yarn because orders over $45 get free shipping.

Shadow
100% merino wool
440 yards
$1.99/hank

Gossamer
100% merino wool
440 yards
$2.99/hank

Alpaca Cloud
100% baby alpaca
440 yards
$3.99/hank

Then yesterday when we went to Arcadia to buy Chinese newspapers, we stopped by the JoAnn's there and I bought $27 more in yarn. I bought some Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn for amigurumi, some JoAnn Sensations yarn that was on sale (omg that stuff is so soft!), and some Patons worsted weight classic wool in Aran so that I can try dyeing and maybe felting.

.._.._.._.._.._.._..

Last night I finished weaving in the random ends that were sticking out of the bunny slippers. So that project is completed.

On Sunday, I finished up the lace cuff of the butterfly wrap and wove the ends in. I didn't have time to properly finish the ribbon ties, so I will need to do that. I didn't end up wearing it to the Nightwish concert...and truthfully I probably would have been very cold if I wore it. It still needs to be blocked, and I hope I find another occasion to wear it.

Being a productive weekend, I also finished up Sly's scarf last night. I don't know what the hell is up with my row counting, but it turns out that after "fixing" the red stripe, I ended up with an extra row. However, it's okay because I just made sure that the horizontal red stripe connecting the two pieces had the same number of stitches on both pieces so when I sewed it together, it would just kind of...line itself up. It doesn't look so bad, and will probably be better after I block it. If I can block it. I just realized the Vanna's Choice yarn is acrylic.

I frogged the beginning of Ela's scarf and restarted it to go along with the striped self-fringing scarf pattern in The Happy Hooker. I made it slightly shorter so it's 250 stitches-long instead of 300.

I sewed the body to the head of the amigurumi elephant. I ran out of yarn in the ball I was using, so I'm using the other balls of random blue yarn I had. I thought they were all the same color, but it looks like the other balls are slightly darker. This elephant is going to be kind of weird looking. I also sewed on two of the legs, but I think I sewed them in the wrong place. Maybe it will still be cute in a sort of deformed way... :/

This morning on my way to work, I wound one of the hanks of Knit Picks Shadow into a yarn cocoon so I can start knitting (w00t, knitting!) a lace scarf for my mom's Christmas present. The pattern looks insanely easy...it's just 4 rows of alternating knit increases/decreases & purls, repeated to the desired length or until your yarn runs out. It's the Party Lace Scarf from MagKnits, but without the beads. I'm just doing knit stitches where the beads would have been.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.