My mom’s birthday was last Friday and with all my catching up from Christmas knitting i really didn’t have the time for a bigger project to make for her. I got her a couple books of her wish list, a super cool vase and some other small things. I did want to throw in something small and handmade so i made her a little goddess.
Well okay it’s not really a goddess but that what i like to call her. She is a Sit-ster from The Natural Knitter.
I just used some scraps of yarn for her body and hair. Malabrigo, mohair, crazy yarn with fluffs in itI really like how she came out-kind of bohemian. She has pipe cleaners in her body so she is nice and bendy and makes for some fun.
It was an easy knit and went quickly, I would like to make more of these-for myself 
and others.
My mom hasn’t opened her gift yet so i am not sure how she liked it but i think she will.
I haven’t made much progress on my old projects but i did start a new one 
Something cute for Little Man, hopefully for Valentine’s Day.
Here’s a paw-only 3 more to go. Those little fingers are a pain to make but i am thinking happy thoughts.
Yesterday we went to Ikea to for a comforter for hubby and ended up with a bit more than planned.
Goodbye Little Bed
Hello Big Boy Bed
Little Man loves his new bed and the little fort area on the bottom. I like that it opens up a bit more floor space because he needs it with all the stuff he has-it’s amazing how quickly things multiply and take over.
This morning after his first night in the bed-i asked how he slept and he said “Really Good and i put my head out” At first i thought our from under the canopy thing and he said no the pillow. Ohh, see Little Man has a star and planet night light (also from Ikea) well once that turns off he puts his head under his pillow to sleep because he is afraid of the dark in his room. So i think that’s a good sign that the new bed is a winner yay! I want one too
Before Christmas and the whole right eye problems, My mom and I painted and glittered pine cones. She ended up having quite a few left over. We took a bag of pine cones home with us and decided to cover them with peanut butter and bird seed and feed our bird friends during this super cold and snowy winter.
1) Get some peanut butter
2) Spread peanut butter on
3) Roll in the bird food mix
And Voila! Bird Food Pine Cones
Only thing is-the birds had no interest in them at all. Sunday, after breakfast, we went out to play in the snow and noticed only one pince cone and been eaten and by a squirrel. He was still trying to get little bits off the pine cone and so we went and grabbed the other pine cones from the back and put them at the bottom of the tree for him and i hung one up close to him. He never ran away the whole time!! The pine cone i hung up kept him busy and while he was nibbling on that other squirrels came and grabbed up the pine cones from the ground but they came when we were in the back. We happened to see one running in the street with a pine cone in his mouth and one diving under a car when we came back to the front. Happy Happy Squirrels and Little Man got a kick out of it as well.
And after some Hot Cocoa and Lunch, my guys went in Daddy’s workshop to do some forging.
Little Man wasn’t down there long but he liked getting to do something daddy does.
Remember this hat?
It’s the hat i made for Hubby last year.
Well…I shrunk it.
So i had to knit a replacement. I sent Hubby to Ravelry and made him pick out a hat pattern he liked.
Pattern: Half-Pipe Hat by Debbie Stoller in Stitch N’ Bitch for Men
Dates: Jan. 6-Jan. 9, 2009
Made for: Hubby
Needle: 16 inch circs and DP’s, size 9
Yarn: Wolle Rodel Universal and just a tad of Cascade 220 because i ran out of yarn.
Notes: The pattern is written for a 20 inch head-Hubby is 23 inches. So instead of 80 sts i cast on 92. It fits perfectly Other than that no changes. I took a chance and used the yarn i had in my stash and i did run out and finished the hat with some scrap yarn. When Lane is just standing normal you don’t even see the dk. grey and so he took the hat as is-otherwise i would have went and bought some yarn and remade the hat.
You use plastic canvas for the brim, for some extra padding and to keep it from snagging the yarn i wrapped the plastic canvas with some this cotton batting.
The brim of the hat was a bit tricky to sew in and i had to redo it once. Just make sure when you are pinning it into place that you keep rechecking and making sure your staying even. Lots of pins will help keep it in place while seaming as well.
This was an easy knit, very cozy and came out great. I am very happy with the pattern and would make it again.
Of course daddy’s stuff is always so cool. And Little Man had to pose as well.
Here is Little Man being silly with Daddy’s hat.
Pattern: Cosima from Berroco booklet #281
Dates: Nov 1, 2008-Jan. 5, 2009
Made for: Me but i have a feeling i will be giving it away.
Yarn: Lana Grossa Due
Needles: Size 8 and 10
Notes: I don’t think i am happy with how this turned out. The buttons i like, the back i like, the sleeves i like but the front not so much. I don’t like how the neckline lays on me, i wish it were a bit higher up. Personally i think i could have gotten away with making a Medium instead of a Large.
I did make a few changes-the first one being i cast on for the size medium thinking Large would be too much. So I cast on the amount of stitches they give you for a Medium but then i decreased the stitch count to that of the Large size. I really did this for no reason. I just… ahem… didn’t read ahead in the pattern.
I also picked up more stitches for the neckline then the pattern did-i guess i thought it was odd that all the sizes picked up the same amount of neckline stitches. It may be part of my neckline problem and i haven’t decided if redoing the neckline will really make much improvement.
I don’t have much luck with the sweaters i make for myself-Hopefully the next one will be better.
Pattern: Gogi Goat by Lis Chaong, Saplanet
Made for: John
Dates: December 28, 2008
Hook: I/5.0 mm
Yarn: Vanna’s Choice, white and brown
Notes: Made this guy for my mom’s friend because he really likes goats. Hubby wanted to keep him.
He came out way better than i thought he would. I have done some crochet but i always have trouble when i am working in the round like this but after a few rows i figured it out and was able to move along. The trickiest parts were the tail and horns because they were so little.
I followed the pattern. It is very well written and even has the row sts count at the end of each row-shich really helped me.
As far as i know he liked it but i wasn’t there when he opened the gift so i can’t be sure.
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It’s snowing here again and cold. Makes me want to hibernate Little Man is back in school this week and it has been so hard to get up in the morning, especially after all the sleeping in we did during our break. The cold isn’t helping either. Stay warm!
Pattern: Shaun the Sheep by Alan Dart, Patons 2240 and was also published in Woman’s Weekly long time ago. I got my copy on eBay.
Dates: Nov. 11-Dec. 19, 2008
Made for: Babsi
Yarn: Vanna’s Choice in Black and White. Joann’s Sensations Angel Hair, white. and for the sweater some leftover yarn i had.
Needles: Size 8 double points
Notes: I did use thicker yarn and needles than the pattern calls for so that way he would be a little bit bigger.
After looking at other Shaun Sheep on Ravelry i read that another knitter had knit her shaun in the round. Since i dislike seaming so greatly i decided to try that as well. I was able to knit the tail, body, neck, head, eyes, ears and head tuft in the round. I started on of the legs in the round but for some reason it came out looking funny so i decided to work the legs flat like in the pattern. Over all the pattern was very easy to follow and had no mistakes that i noticed. In my copy of the pattern, from the magazine, the ear instructions are titles Legs-no biggie.
Assembling Shaun also went okay until it was time to attach his head to his neck. I went through the head and neck with so much yarn to make it stiff and keep from falling all the way forward. Later after putting on the sweater i found out i didn’t have to quite so much because the neck on the sweater helps keep his head up a little as well. The sweater only helps a little so you want to make sure you do stabilize the head and neck well.
For the sweater i chose just to make it in a color my mom likes than the one in the pattern. The pattern sweater is modeled after what Shaun was wearing in A Close Shave. I knit the front and back flat and then picked up stitches around the sleeve and knit them in the round. The sweater fits him pretty snuggly and that is my fault, i should have adjusted the stitch count slightly to make up for using the thicker yarn on Shaun.
I would say the knitting for this pattern is not hard but the assembly does take time, patience and maybe even some adjusting.
Finally, it was so hard to give this guy away-he turned out way better than i thought he would. I do want to make myself one of these but it won’t be for awhile. He was received with a squeal of “Oh! How Cute.” so i know he is being loved.
Tomorrow a Goat
I am back, well i have been back for about a week but there are a few things that i missed doing for Christmas that i did during New Year’s Week and then just catching up on everything.
Wow, my eye has been through quite a bit. The Good News is that i haven’t had to have surgery but i still have some fluid/detachment. I have to keep going back and checking the progress of how that is doing and hopefully it won’t be long and my body will absorb the fluid and all will be well. Over the time i was gone i had two Cryo treatments, 4 laser treatments and a treatment where they put bubbles in your eye. The bubbles are supposed to form one big bubble and then that bubble pushes on the area where the problems are and helps hold it in place. The goal is that it holds it all up and everything can heal in place. Well to do this i had to lay on my left side for 55 mins out of every hour. After two days i was totally tired of it and on Christmas when we went in to see how i was doing and the doctor told me it wasn’t doing as well as it hoped and we would give it one more day, if it was still the same then surgery. I broke down. I cried all the way home. Not only was my eye not better, but i had to spent my whole christmas day in bed doing nothing on my left side and i really felt like one more day wasn’t going to make a difference. And i wasn’t looking forward to any surgery but after laying there again, my left side complaining because it didn’t want to be laid on anymore, I decided i was going in on Friday and telling them “Give Me the Surgery!” I did just that even before the Doc looked at my eye. He looked anyway of course agreed that it looked like that was our only option left and went to make phone calls. To do the operation they have to have two doctors and he called the other doctor and they talked for some time and the other doctor wanted to come in and see my eye. I guess it was bothering both of them that i had such a small tear and detachment now (the other stuff had worked a little) and why wasn’t it getting better and really they didnt want to do such a huge surgery that would change the shape of my eye and prescription for something so little. So he came and looked and asked me some Q’s. His biggest question was whether i was sure i had no symptoms prior to this(symptoms include floaters, flashing lights or loss of vision in the affected area) , Had it been seen just by chance. Because that was important to decide their next step. The second doc said my eye looked pretty good and really at this point there was a 75% chance that my eye would stay just like that and never get worse if they left it alone and did no treatment. He decided our next move would be lasering all around really good and covering all our areas and that should solve all my problems. He said when someone comes in asking for surgery that means they are Done, drained emotionally, want it all to be done with and he could understand that. He did the lasering and said it all looked really good. The best part was he said “YOU HAVE NO RESTRICTIONS” I could do whatever i wanted!! I teared up with joy!!!! I did do some laundry and dishes when i got home, i was so happy to be doing anything even house work but my eye was pretty sore after all the lasering that i didn’t do much else. I just went back this past Friday and it’s looking really good but i do still have some fluid that they have to keep an eye on, so i go back in two weeks. I am so thankful that things are getting better and hope they continue to do so. Thank you all for your support, kind words and prayers. They do mean a lot.
I have been catching up on my knitting during the last week and finished Christmas presents. So my goal for this week is a FO post everyday.
Tomorrow-Shaun the Sheep.
A bit late but Happy New Year to all you! I hope 2009 brings some improvements and more importantly that everyone is Happy and Healthy!!
