Warm Fuzzies

Ruby Red Booties!

I recently attended a baby shower for someone who was expecting a little girl...I've been so busy lately that I completely forgot about posting the gift that I made.  I had seen this wonderful idea (and free pattern!) more than a year ago, and promised myself that I would knit up a pair of glittering red booties for a special baby girl some day.  That day finally came.

I was not able to purchase the Lion Brand Glitterspun yarn called for in the pattern; I used Paton's Brilliant instead, and modified the pattern for the lighter weight of the yarn, using size 3 needles instead of size 7 and adjusting the gauge.  Instead of using buttons, I attached red satin ribbon to the booties and tied them in bows to hold the t-straps in place.  Although I made a couple of minor changes, the booties were still a quick knit, so I found myself with some spare time to work on the presentation of the booties.

I wanted the recipient to be able to display the booties after her daughter outgrows them, so I decided to decorate the box accordingly.  I found the picture for the background online; someone had adjusted a photograph so that the road became golden-colored.  I used Photoshop to adjust the hues and contrast a little more, and also edited out some poles along the side of the road.  I cropped the image so that it would cover the bottom of my box, and then started working on a card.   

The card is pretty much covered up in most of the photographs, so I've uploaded the file I created.  After printing this image, I signed my name in red and glued the card into the box.  Speaking of the box, there couldn't have been a more perfect box for my vision of the booties display.  The box is covered with gold-toned ribbon, and has a see-through window in front...I squealed out loud when I found it in my stash of gift boxes.

Tada!  A Wizard of Oz display for the Ruby Red Booties.  If it wasn't for the fact that I wasn't pregnant, and won't be for at least a few more years, I would most definitely have been unable to overcome the temptation to stash away these booties for the daughter that I might have someday.  But I was able to find it in myself to part with the booties and bring them to the baby shower.  Upon unwrapping my gift and seeing the booties, the look on the mom-to-be's face made my "sacrifice" worth it, many times over.

Saturday Market Bag

I've been so super busy these past couple of weeks that I'm still scratching my head a little, wondering where all that time went.  I was able to finish a couple of (small) projects, but never got around to posting about them.  July's been a month full of guests; my mother and sister came to stay with me for a full two weeks (I miss them already), and another friend is here now, just for the weekend.  I'm expecting two more house guests next weekend.  Busy, busy, busy.  But I am totally enjoying the company, so my crafting will just have to suffer a little.

Environmentally friendly shopping bags have really gained momentum these past months, and I found myself compelled to join the bandwagon.  While I lusted over bags that could fold into its own pocket, like this singlet style shopping bag and this crochet reduction tote bag, I wanted a super-quick project, so the pattern that I finally settled with was the Saturday Market Bag, with Liesl from disdressed's modifications. 

                        

The pattern was very easy, and Liesl's modifications made seaming minimal, so I finished my bag in no time at all.  It's wonderful, it keeps stretching, and stretching, and stretching...  There's a bottle of maple syrup, apple cinnamon pancake mix, a box of cereal, a loaf of bread, a package of walnuts, several apples, and a large carton of yogurt (mmm....breakfast!) in the bag, and there is still plenty of room to comfortably carry more.

Since I can wear the bag on my shoulder, it's much easier for me to carry home heavier items than it has been for me using the traditional plastic shopping bags.  And I look *much* more chic coming home with my groceries in this great looking bag.  After unloading all of the groceries from the bag, I can ball it up so that it's no bigger than a ping pong ball.  Then I just toss it in my purse, where it takes up minimal space, and pull it out again on my next grocery shopping excursion.  Cool, huh?  Hehehe.

Anthropologie-Inspired Capelet

I had this Anthropologie-Inspired Capelet pattern bookmarked since forever.  After sitting around twiddling my thumbs for more than a year hoping the capelet would magically knit itself, I finally found an excuse to knit one for myself, and boy, am I glad I did.  Now I'm kicking myself wondering why in the world I didn't make it sooner.

                             

You see, I was invited to an engagement party in Seattle where all guests were asked to wear black and pink.  I have black garments galore...but pink?  Yikes.  I looked through my wardrobe and found 3 pink shirts (one of them was a t-shirt, haha).  Nice for me to wear out on a normal day, but not to a semi-formal party.  I didn't really have the time to go make a special trip to shop for something pink to go with my dress.  I was packing for the trip and in the middle of convincing myself that a pink necklace and earrings would bring enough color into my ensemble to offset the black when it hit me.  That capelet that everyone on Craftster keeps making.  The Anthropolgie-inspired one.  I could knit a pink one.  And theoretically, I could start and finish it on my flight to Seattle.  And so it was decided.

I happened to have just purchased the last two remaining skeins of pale pink Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton yarn during a big sale at a local yarn store the day before, thinking I'd just stash it away for a while (I know, what are the chances of that?  This capelet was meant to happen, hehe).  I immediately retrieved the yarn, shoved it into my carry-on, and printed out the pattern for my in-flight entertainment.

   

I knit in the capelet in the round to minimize seaming.  It was a pretty quick knit; I was able to finish the knitting and weave in nearly all of the ends by the time I arrived in Seattle.  Although my capelet wasn't looking it's finest at the party (I wasn't able to block the capelet before the party, and had completely forgotten to pack a brooch to pin the collar on top), it looked great with my dress.  I couldn't ask for anything more.

Charade

When Sandra posted her pattern for Charade, a herringbone-stitch sock, I knew I had to make a pair for Kyle.  (He had wanted a hand-knit pair of socks for himself after seeing my first pair of socks.) 

I used a beautiful bamboo blend yarn (60% wool, 30% bamboo, 10% nylon) purchased from Ashley on Etsy , in her denim colorway.  I really like the idea of knitting socks with a bamboo yarn, since bamboo is naturally antibacterial and wonderfully soft.  Perfect for socks meant for stinky man-feet.

The only change I made to the pattern was casting on 72 instead of 64 stitches so that the sock would fit a larger foot.  The 2-row repeat for the herringbone pattern was easy to memorize and surprisingly fun to knit.   The second sock practically flew off my needles.

Kyle peeked over my shoulder just now and said, "I have such beautiful feet!"  He's such a big ham sometimes.  What he should have said is "I have such beautiful socks!"  Bah, men.  They never learn, do they? =D

Spring Chickens!

It's been a while since I've finished a crochet project, hasn't it?  I'm not sure exactly why, but I find that I seem to crochet a lot more during spring and summer time, and switch to knitting during fall and winter.  Weird, huh?  At any rate, I'm finally convinced that it's really spring because in addition to it being gorgeous outside, I've completed my first crochet project of the year.  Behold my new kitchen decor:

Not just one, but two spring chickens! 

The big, round chicken is a potholder that, quite honestly, I probably won't use much because I'm terrified of the inevitable: the bit of food that would fall just so on my beautiful white chicken, staining her forever.  Oh, the horror!  She works pretty well as wall art anyway, right?

And then there's the little shelf doll.  I call her Florence.  Or just Flo.  Depends on my mood.  I just love her little apron!  She was lots of fun to make, and although you can't see in this picture, she has a pretty feathered tail, too.  She keeps me company when I do the dishes.

The pattern that I used to make both chickens was available for free on this site last year, but it appears that they've taken it down.  Phooey.   I'm not exactly sure which crochet magazine the original pattern appeared in, but in case anyone's interested, I did a quick internet search, and was able to find this eBay listing for the pattern, cut out from the magazine in which it was originally printed (although the price for shipping's a bit steep).

Illustration Friday: Citrus

Here's a little something that I painted in Photoshop for this week's Illustration Friday.  I tried a more graphic, contemporary style this time around, and had lots of fun playing with the polygon lasso tool.  I first tried to paint her eye open, but it turned out a bit too freaky-looking for me.  I gave up after my third try and painted a closed eye instead.  I think the illo would read a bit better with an open eye, so someday, I'll come back and fiddle with it again.  But that day's not today, hehe.



I did another quick illustration, for the "citrus" theme, using a similar palette of colors.  Oscar just loves the smell of oranges, and sometimes he's lucky enough to get a small piece for a treat.  The illustration shows a rabbit (Oscar, perhaps?  hehe) looking up at a fruiting orange tree.  I think I am going to paint it on canvas, and hang it in Oscar's corner of the apartment.

A New Beginning

So, it's official.  I started my new job this Monday.  I have to commute all the way to the southern tip of Brooklyn, which takes about 90-100 minutes for me each way.  I figured that I would be able to sit down and get a bit of crafting or reading done during my commute...boy was I wrong.  The trains are incredibly crowded in early morning, and moreso in the evening.  I'm lucky if I get a seat during the last 30 minutes of the commute.  Haha, that pretty much throws my plans right out the window.  Oh, the things I would have made!  These things happen.  So...my hunt for some good audiobooks begins.

The people that I worked with previously got me a card, which they all signed, and flowers on my last day of work.  Many people came to me personally to wish me well.  The gesture made me a little misty-eyed.  I will definitely miss all the wonderful people that I was able to meet and work with.  Truly.

During the weekend, I went down to Union Square and purchased some organically grown herbs and planted them in a window box.  Guess who they're for??  Hehe.

Although I'm definitely excited about having fresh herbs on hand for cooking, I'm more excited thinking about how happy Oscar will be when he has a variety of fresh organically grown herbs to eat.  He frequently visits the kitchen in anticipation of getting a little taste of the herbs in addition to the other greens that have been gradually introduced into his diet.

Meanwhile, the lazy little bunny's been keeping me company by my feet when I use the computer in the early mornings, before I leave for work.  I know he doesn't look all that excited about the herbs right now (given my lack of a green thumb), but believe me, he's dreaming about them!  =)

Illustration Friday: Fortune

In celebration of the Year of the Golden Pig (a pig year coinciding with the element of gold happens only once every 60 years and signifies an extremely prosperous and lucky year), here's a pen and ink drawing of a pig and lucky rabbit that I did, in the style of a classic Chinese paper cutting.

Traditionally, the pig is already considered an animal of fortune, living a comfortable and carefree life.   In the Zodiac story, the Pig takes a nap and indulges in a snack in the middle of the race, yet he still manages to be one of the twelve winners. 

The pig is paired with a rabbit not only because there's a new Rabbit in my life (I'm a Pig), but because this year is particularly auspicious for people born in the year of the Rabbit.  Rabbits have the Midas touch this year; their careers will boom, bringing them new levels of wealth and success.  Fortune on top of fortune.  So my father (a Rabbit) tells me.  And, of course, red was my color of choice for the illustration - according to the Chinese, the color red is the very embodiment of luck and fortune. 

I had actually initially planned to illustrate something like this back when the Illustration Friday topic was "Red".  The concept was floating around in my head since then, but it was the "Fortune" topic that brought the idea back to center stage.  I think I may just use this illustration as a template to make a real traditional paper cutting.  *Adds yet another item to an ever-growing 'To do' list and laughs like a maniac*

Bunnies from Knitted Squares

My household has no shortage of bunnies, but I couldn't help myself.  Oscar needed friends.

Meet Susie and Moe.  Can you believe that they're made from a knitted square/swatch?  It's true.  Here's how.  While watching a DVD, I knit two little stockinette stitch squares from a mohair-blend yarn that I had purchased quite a while ago for a project that I had dreamed up, but never took the time to actually start.  I enjoyed the mindless knitting; it was perfect for a lazy weekend.



As you can see, Susie and Moe have a penchant for books.  Oscar does, too, but not so much for reading them as chewing them up with his razor-sharp bunny teeth.  But he's only doing what's natural for rabbits, and he's just so darn cute that I can't get mad at him.  It was my fault, anyway, for having books on a shelf low enough for Oscar to reach.  Nice bunny.  Bad human.  Poor The Red Tent.  I liked you.  But I digress.  Back to introducing our new knitted bunny friends.



Susie and Moe have been neighbors since childhood.  Moe's had a crush on Susie since forever, but he was never brave enough to do anything about it.



So Susie did.  Moe realized there was no reason to be shy.  It didn't take long for him to propose.

Susie said yes.  And so many, many more little knitted bunnies are to come.  The end.

*The bunnies are knitted with Lily Chin Greenwich Village on #7 needles, and I used pompoms for their tails.

Happy Easter!

Just a quick little post today.  Earlier this morning, I happened upon these instructions for a cute little pompom bunny, so I naturally dropped what I was doing to gather supplies and make one of my own.  She was a quick little project, and I really enjoyed working on her.

I can't exactly put my finger on why my bunny's a little "special" looking, but it gives her character, right?  Right.  I improvised for the wooden base by using a lid that I had saved from a sports drink.  It worked beautifully.

My bunny ended up being around 5" tall.  She's now enjoying her new home in the kitchen, ready to go a-hunting for eggs in a moment's notice.  But the poor dear already has her hands full...

And what has Oscar been up to?  Well, he's been busy getting to know some new friends.  They're all a bit busy hiding eggs right now, but they'll be sure to come out and play another day.  Cheers!