Squirrel Making

A few months ago I decided to try my hat at creating my own toy pattern. I wasn't trying to make something revolutionary but just something simple with simple shaping and one color. The little town that I live in celebrates a White Squirrel Festival each year and the owner of the consignment shop in town had been asking me if I knew how to make a white squirrel toy so I took up the challenge and decided I would make a pattern for a white squirrel. Above are Chris' and my sketches to try and determine the general shape. Evil Patrick is not related to squirrel making but rather a creepy manifestation of Chris' psyche.

The sketching helped me a lot with visualizing where I should be adding increases and decreases and was a great reference to look back at as I went so that I could judge whether I was really heading in the right direction. You can see where I scribbled notes as I went to keep track of what I was doing and, when it wasn't working, scratch it all out and start over. I definitely need more practice to get the hang of making up my own toy pattern. While I like how this turned out I feel that I hit a better cat note than I did squirrel. My next step is to modify the pattern to make a pirate squirrel like the one drawn near evil Patrick. I always loved making pirate monkeys and I think that pirate squirrels will be pretty damn cute, too. Really, everything looks better when dressed as a pirate. I think it's the eye patch.

The in progress and finished squirrel are below. I'm super happy with the tail although I think I could have stitched a Swiffer on it's butt and saved myself about 3 hours of tedium. In the finished product I also added a jaunty little scarf because the squirrel just seemed like it needed something to break up all that white. Plus it makes it look sophisticated and jet-setting and, really, don't squirrels sort of look that way in real life? Something about a fluffy tail makes an animal look fancy.

Squirrel in progress

Finished squirrel

The beginnings of a bunny

You can't really tell from this photo but this is going to be a bunny, if all goes well. This little toy is a heavily modified version of the Caron One Skein Bunny. The original pattern makes a bunny about twice his size and that was just a little more than I wanted to take on, plus I didn't have enough yarn for that. So I scaled down the head and body from the pattern and then made the legs and arms more like the arms of the teddy bear that I just finished.

I'm sort of winging the ears though so that might take some trial and error. They're going to be big, floppy ears with pink on the inside to add a nice bit of color and cuteness. I'm hoping to have this one finished up this week so that I can start on the third toy this weekend. I haven't decided what to make next. I've got a very cute pig pattern from my page a day calendar so I might give that a try.

Quick Crochet Scarf

Last night I really wanted to make something and that something needed to be quick and it needed to be cute and it needed to be simple enough that I could make it and finish it while watching and still enjoying a movie with Chris. This scarf was a perfect match for that. It resembles a scarf that I was given a couple of years ago by my sister-in-law that has since unraveled from overuse. I'm super happy with how the scarf came out and it's so nice to finally be making something for myself.

The scarf is made with only the treble stitch. It's about 20 stitches wide and made on a size J hook. I alternated four rows of each color. I don't have the ball bands anywhere so I'm not sure of the exact colorways but both yarns of Lion Brand Vanna's Choice.

Now I have something to keep in mind if I'm scrambling for gifts in the middle of December.

On a side note: yes, I still have christmas lights up in the apartment. I refuse to take them down while it's still anything like 17 degrees outside. I need something to cheer me up in the depth of winter and colorful blinking lights always do the trick.

Christmas Knitting

A shawl and a scarf in Lion Brand Wool-Ease. The shawl is in charcoal and the scarf is in more of a slate gray. I'm super happy with these. I've only just begun trying out lace patterns and so far I really like them. They knit up pretty quickly and the lace patterns for both of these were easy to memorize after the first few repeats.

Baby Hat and Scarf

I just finished knitting a hat and scarf for my nephew, Alex. The scarf is probably way too big for his little baby neck but I was so worried that it would be too small that I may have over-compensated a little. The hat is totally adorable and I can't wait until I have some free time to knit myself one. It's made from Bernat Satin with two strands of yarn held together. It came out very lush and thick and I'm sure it will keep his head nice and toasty all winter.

The scarf was knit in stockinette so it was curling like mad! I crocheted a border all around but it was still curling some so I'm hoping that a little blocking will straighten out some.