Some WIPs - Watch this Space

I'm aware I haven't posted here in, shall we say, a while. That's mainly because I haven't had a camera, and it's hard to share crafty stuff is one doesn't have a camera.

Anyway, here are a couple of WIPs I'm in the middle of right now:

Patchwork Skirt

So I decided to make my first ever skirt needlessly complicated and difficult. I used a roll of patchwork strips and a coupla fat quarters and a bunch of buttons. But the whole thing's on hold right now, because my sewing machine upped and died and I can't afford to get it fixed :(

Pajama Quilt

My sister and I have a habit of destroying PJs, so I took a bunch and made them into my first quilt (I went for simple instead of complicated this time). It's so pretty :D

My Little Ponies

I wanted to make 'show-accurate' MLPs so I've been working on making myself a pattern. It's pretty much finished, so I'm going to test it out before I post it. Whee!

Clay Beads

I made a few beads out of air-dry, and then totally forgot all about them. They need varnishing and painting. The skulls were direclty inspired by this post here :)

So that's everything I'm working on right now, apart from the book, the youth work, the stall for the church fair, moving house, coming up with children's crafts for babysitting, and trying to make friends on the other side of the world. Times are fun!

Anything Animals

A robot, a sheep, a frog and a bunny, all from the same pattern! Rachel Borello's Anything Animals pattern, that is. I loved knitting these guys so much! Of course, I have no idea what to do with them, seeing as I'm leaving for Asia in four days!

I made the frog first. I love how the 'shirt' turned out to look like bathing shorts :) A pattern for his froggy feet can be found at the bottom of this post!


In his natural habitat :)


I made this little bunny out of mohair yarn I found at a charity shop. I say 'little' but strangely she knit up bigger than all the rest. Her ears are adorably wonky, and arms reach out as if to say, 'Hug me!' Or, possibly, 'Braaaiiiiinssss...'

'Braiiinssssss!'

So cute you want to tear your eyes out.

I have wanted to knit a robot since I first started knitting! FINALLY! I made him a little shorter than the rest, and threw in some bobbles and bits to make him more robotic. His arms are sewn all the way down the side and his antenna has a twist of wire in it to make it stick up all bendy. He turned out incredibly timid-looking, or maybe just grumpy

It's all right, little robot!

Exploring the surface of an alien planet, no doubt...

Getting over excited about the bobbles, I decided to have a crack at using a lot of them for texture. I was going to make a mohair seep, but I decided to go for bobbles instead :) I'm not sure the experiement was 100% successful, but I like this little sheep. She's certainly rather cuddly.

Baaa.

And, as promised, the pattern for the frog feet:

Pattern for Froggy Feet:


CO 5
1: K3 K2tog (4)
2: K2tog K2 (3)
3: K2 Kfb (4)
4: Kfb K3 (5)
5-7: rep 1-3
8: Kfb and then BO all st

The feet came out sort of a lumpy mess; when attatching them to the frog, I pulled loops of yarn between the toes to give them shape. Worked okay, I think :)

Pants' Accidentally Shrunk Hat

I made this hat for my sister way back in February. It was a good fit and I was pretty happy with it. Of course, we had an indian summer this year, and she's hardly worn it. Which I guess is how it ended up in the wash :/

Oops.

It's now way too small for a human being - I suppose it might fit a baby, but it's very thick now and heavy. So instead I tried it out on Pants, the stuffed monkey. He wears it well:

Thus, lesson learnt. Wool + Washing Machine = Hats for Monkeys.

Fishy Kitty Hat

My mum is extremely disparaging of this hat. I've tried explaining that kitty ears are totally in (and they are, I've seen loads in Claire's) and that earflappy 'Dappy Hats' are cool, but she thinks I made a pretty hat and then ruined it by adding childish weirdness.

I stuck with it, though :D This is my first attempt at knitting in the round with DPNs, so it was rather scary and very exciting! This is also my first pattern from a book, Debbie Stoller's Stitch'n'Bitch Kitter's Handbook (although as that calls for aran weight and I only own epic amounts of DK, I had to do a lot of MATHS! to make this work out right)

I was planning on wearing this while travelling (althought now I think I'll give it to my sister) and I didn't want pom-poms on the tie-ends that would get all ratty and fall apart. So I had a think about kitty-related things and designed my own little fishy tie-ends!


Pattern for Fishy Tie-Ends:

From 4-st icord:
1: k2tog k2tog (2)
2: k icord style
Start knitting flat:
3: p1 m1 p1 m1 (4)
4: seed st
5: p1 m1 k1 p1 m1 k1 (6)
6: *k1 m1 - seed st to last 2 - k1 m1 k1* (8)
7: rep row 6 (10)
8-12: seed st
13: k1, k2tog - seed st to last 3 - k2tog, k1 (8)
14: rep row 13 (6)
15: seed st
16: p1 k2tog k2tog k1 (4)
17: seed st
18: k1 m1 p1 k1 m1 p1 (6)
19: rep row 6 (8)
20: seed st
21: rep row 6 (10)
22: seed st
23: BO

For added weight consider pu2 where fish meets icord and repeating the whole thing, then sewing the two fish together. Alternatively, add button or bead eyes :D

The Incredible Wonderful Adventures of Billy and Jilly Bean

I love knitting, homg. I especially love knitting toys, they're quick and the results are nearly always awesome. This cute little dinosaurus (designed by Miss Aine) is easily the most complex thing I've knitted, as it relies on 3d shaping rather than flat bits sewn together. And he is so. cute. omg.

So then after making the cutest toy in the world ever, I decided he needed a little sister. This was easily the most engineery thing I've knitted, as I wanted to make her 2/3 the size of the original pattern and that meant a lot of MATHS! But she turned out perfectly! And she is just as cute as her brother :D :D :D

Look! Features!

TEST POST :)

I hope to showcase a lot of my crafty creative works here. I hear it's what all the cool kids are doing.

Right now, I am literally obsessed with Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and Commentary! the musical. Like, really in love with it. Like, listening to it right now.

I used to have another blog here, except that my old school email address was deleted and now I can't access it. Could be worse! I had another as well - a sort of tell-all secretive type - but I haven't posted there in years. No link - very sekrit.

I WIN AT LIFE.

Here's a picture from my bedroom: (Not like that, you dirty minded whoever)

Well, that was easy to post! That thar is my little-shop bag collection. L-R from the top: Auckland Museum, New Zealand - The British Library, London UK - La Mola Fort, Mao Menorca - (THE MASTER) - Tate Modern, London UK - National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin Ireland - The National Gallery, London UK - The British Museum, London UK - Museum of London, London UK - Trinity College Library, Dublin Ireland -National Portrait Gallery, London UK.

And this is a gif of something amusing:

Assuming that worked: CARA WTFS AT U. Otherwise, you're just looking at picture of a flower. Which is nice enough.

Test Post: Testy :D