Warm Fuzzies

Felt Mascot/Little Stuffies Swap

So I'm back in NYC now after a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and birthday celebration (My grandfather turned 93 years old!) with my family in California.  No crafting yet, but boy, do I have some great mail to share with you over the next few days!

First things first.  Meet Acorn.  Isn't he delicious?  I just love his button eyes.  I got him in a felt mascot/little stuffies swap that I signed up for on craftster.  My swap partner, Peihan, makes the cutest little batik puppies. For our swap, she made me my very own green and purple-y batik puppy...but smaller (one of the conditions of the swap was for the stuffies to be between 6 and 8 inches tall).

I immediately took Acorn for a walk in Central Park, where he instantly started hunting for acorns...not an easy task in late fall, we found.  Those squirrels sure are efficient!  At the end, Acorn and I were still able to find a few little dusty acorns to add to his collection of seeds (he came with seeds for Forget-me-Nots and Baby's Breath).

Peihan also sent a cute card with a sweet illustration of a bee, inside of which she wrote a little bio for Acorn:

"This is Acorn, a puppy who loves playing in the woods.  He likes anything green, espeically flowery plants. =)  So he insisted on taking some seeds with him to his new home."

I'll take him to the woods someday, but for the time being, he'll have to make do with a humble little apartment and an occasional the trip to the park.

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Here's the package I sent Peihan.

       

This is Bubba (short for Bubhaleighnitzer).  I modeled him after Peihan's craftster avatar (pictured on the right), and gave him a little black messenger bag just for kicks.  I used chenille yarn, so he's nice and cuddly.  I had a lot of fun making him, and even more fun writing his bio.

In addition to the mint Hershey bar, I made some lime earrings for a little something extra.  Here's a close-up of Bubba showing them off (in bad lighting, poo!).

I followed this tutorial, and just added a couple of beads to finish.  The limes turned out a little bigger than what I would ideally want; if I were to make another pair of lime earrings, I'd probably use a smaller hook, like a 6 or an 8.  But I'm still quite satisfied with the finished earrings, so it's all good.

Lacy Blue Crochet Earrings

Ever since I received the beautiful pearl earrings from Kari, I've been, well, obsessed with earrings.  Handmade earrings, because I'm a brat.  Last month, I had fallen in love with a pair (the bottom ones) that Stefanie had posted on craftster, and promptly hunted her down and coerced her into swapping with me  =).  She wanted me to recreate these lovelies (on top) created by the talented Erin, the creative force behind purldrop and sodafine boutique. 

Stefanie wanted blue earrings, and in my tiny, disorganized stash of cotton embroidery floss, I could only muster three different shades of blue.  This chart was used (convenient, no?) to approximate the color of the floss so that Stefanie could make an informed color choice.   

After I finished figuring out a pattern that I felt adequately approximated the earrings that Stefanie wanted, making the earrings didn't take too long at all.  I lightly sprayed the completed earrings with some starch, and ironed them to give the earrings a more professional finish. 

Here are the earrings that I received from Stefanie.  They're even more wonderful in person...the clear glass beads have just the right sparkle.  I would have gotten my hands on them even sooner if I had given Stefanie my real address instead of one that didn't exist (I wrote out the wrong zip code, doh!).

I also recently received a package of Berger cookies from Lera.  She had treated herself to one for her birthday, and when I mentioned to her that I had a sudden craving for them, she sent me a box...just weeks after giving birth to her sixth child!  She was way too good to me. 

Sorry, no picture...Kyle ripped into the box as soon as they got here...and they were gone in the blink of an eye.  Berger cookies + glass of milk = heaven.  It was a favorite procrastination snack for my roommates and me during college.  "Okay, okay, I'll work on the paper....after a Berger cookie," I'd say, and then pour myself a tall glass of milk, take a cookie and slowly nibble away at it for an hour.  Or more.  Ah, the memories.  Thanks so much, Lera!  There will be payback =p.

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Shortly after putting the crochet earrings in the mail, I felt an overwhelming urge to make a pair to keep for myself (I'm a born-again earring glutton, remember?).  So I did just that, using a different shade of blue embroidery floss.

* Erin has given me the okay to post a pattern for my version of her earrings!  So without further ado, here's a quick tutorial, in case anyone feels like making a pair.

Lacy Crochet Earrings

You'll need :

• about 2/3 of a skein of 6-strand cotton embroidery floss
• a size 6 crochet hook
• 2 silver earring hooks
• small sewing needle
• starch spray
  

R1: ch 8, slip the starting end of the chain through the bottom loop of an earring hook, and sl st into the first ch to join into a circle.  (sc, ch 3) in loop to count as first tr, 15 tr in loop, turn. (16 sts)

R2: ch 4, skip 2 tr, sc in next tr, ch 4, skip 2 tr, sc in next tr, ch 5, skip 3 tr, sc in next tr, ch 4, skip 2 tr, sc in next tr, ch 4, sk 2 tr, sl st into last tr, turn.

R3: 5 hdc in first 4 ch space, 5 hdc in next 4 ch space, (3 hdc, 2 dc, 3 hdc) in 5 ch space, 5 hdc in each of last two 4 ch spaces (28 sts).  Fasten off.

Use a small sewing needle to weave in ends.  Repeat R1-R3 to complete second earring.

To finish: Spray completed earrings lightly with starch.  Iron to set.

Skullie wrist warmer set

Heh, so it may be a week after Halloween, but I'm still in the spirit.  Or, at least, my wrist is.

This set of wrist warmers, one for Kyle, one for me, was made using a fun pattern written by Jennifer Tallapaneni called Zombies Need Not Apply, free online from MagKnits.  I made them for Halloween last week, but only I actually wore it on Halloween (with my earrings, of course).  I think Kyle is scared of his wrist warmer.  He's a chicken like that. 

The wrist warmers were my first experience with fair isle knitting...I think I'm hooked.  Color work always intimidated me, but it's just plain old stockinette stitch with a bit of yarn juggling.  A piece of cake, and so rewarding.  If you've noticed that the wrist warmers in my photos look a little wonky, you're right...it's because I didn't block them.  I know, I'm a bad, bad girl.  Hence the unfinished, homemade look.  Please excuse.  =p  There will be blockage this weekend.

The wrist warmer really does keep my wrist nice and toasty warm.  Kyle didn't want to go out of his way to let me photograph his arm (boooo! I so wanted a picture of us wearing our wrist warmers and holding hands, like at the bottom photo in the MagKnits pattern *pout*), so here's a picture of my wrist warmer, all by its lonesome.  I got a couple of strange looks from people when I was taking photographs of myself in the park, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do!