Has anyone seen my Adiposey?

I had my crochet in the front seat of the car, but then the car went all wobbly and I grabbed everything out of it in bags and now I can't find the bag that had my crochet and now I need to work on Felix's Adipose doll and I don't know where it is!

*deep breaths*

In other news I finished Marcus' green cardigan.

When we put it on him to take a photo Felix said "Look at Daddy's little Kurt Cobain!" which was both incredibly funny and somewhat accurate, Mr Cobain having been the sort to rock a cardi. Marcus failed to work out why we were laughing, but he seemed content to slob about in it for the afternoon (we couldn't take it off him without protests so we stopped trying).

I also realised that my new 4ply cardigan I started to knit for Dot will be far too small for her. Dot is somewhat... large for her age, and generally wears size 1, so I've frogged it back and started making her a new cardigan using bamboo/cotton blend.

It's a Hexagon Granny Cardigan and it is positively zooming into existance. I started this at 7:30pm last night and I'm onto the second half already. Mind you, I need to buy more yarn to finish it - at least another ball. Considering I'm using Moda Vera Bamboo Cotton the bank shall remain unbroken.

The Baby Cowboy boots were finished up on Saturday as well (day of the green cardigan) and they're just adorable. I adore them. They are to be adored. Possibly more so once they're on Dot, but I have no intention of waking her up just to take a picture. Feel free to sulk.

The good, the bad and the oops-I-started-another-project (or two)

First up, the good.

Dot's Baby Blu jeans, made from Knitty. I wish I could call them a fast knit, but considering they took over 9 months, I won't! Rowan Denim is fantastic when it's all washed and faded but I now have a set of bamboo 4mm with indigo staining.

I haven't managed to try them on her yet, but I need to make her a cowboy shirt first. Red, I think.

The bad? I had a beanie I made my da ages ago (a few years, we're talking) and all I needed to do was add a brim. Now, the beanie itself was far too deep, so I overlocked the edge to make it shorter. Let me repeat: I overlocked the edge. On a scale of 1 to stupid it was amazingly stupid.

When I came to the point where I needed to undo the beanie I still thought I could work it. This idea continued past the black and onto the white before reality kicked me in the head.

Would you want to wear a beanie with this many joins in it? Me neither, so it's frogged now, but I plan to purchase more Rare Yarns later and make it before winter kicks in too hard.

Dot likes it when I frog my knitting because she gets any of the scraps to play with!


As for the oops, I not only started the Adipose amigurumi for Felix, but also a 4ply cardigan for Dot and some crocheted cowboy boots to go with Dot's new jeans.

Mind you, I only started them two hours ago, so I might be able to finish something up this week!

So close!

Look over there on the right at my "Works In Progress" section. Look at the percentages there: 95%, 5%, 95% and 95%. All I need to do to finish off Marcus' Green Jacket is add four buttons that I haven't been out to purchase. All I need to do to finish off the Garden Shawl is block it, which I don't plan to do until it's closer to Royal Melbourne Show time (ever the optimist). As for Baby Blu jeans, I need to sew them up, which won't take me too long.

So would someone please move the cat so I can actually finish them? She went to bite me when I tried.

Meet Snuffles (and his highly productive creator)

I was on Ravelry and spotted the perfect photo. It was cute, sweet and looked pretty simple. It was also amigurami, which I think means "Crocheted small things that make people squee". So I dropped my knitting, picked up the hook and made myself a dragon.

Meet Snuffles.

I adore him, 'nuff said. The pattern was beautifully written and so easy to follow. The only modification I made was to increase his wing size and add them to the back of him. His tail helps him stand upright and look adorable.

He's very adorable. Happy Year of the Dragon everyone!

LINE

I've been working hard on other projects. I finished up Cameron's birthday Van Halen cosy.

Now he can rock out with his beer all cosy. The very lovely Joex came and picked it up yesterday while dropping off a stereo for me to use in my sewing room (woohoo!) and mentioned that the previous evening she and Cam had been microbat hunting as a community project - catch them, tag them, release them sort of thing. Sadly, they didn't catch any, so I thought I might make it up to her as a thank you for the stereo.

An amigurama microbat is on its way to you today Joex!

Small Objects

Recently Felix has discovered a fondness for Rekordelig fruit cider, especially the mixed berry flavour. (I love the stuff as well but I gave up alcohol as part of my 101 ideas in 1001 days.) Normal beer holders are just too narrow for the massive 500ml bottles that the cider comes in, so I crocheted a holder.


















It's made up of two layers to keep the bottle nicely insulated, with the inside made up of various orange 8ply scraps and the outside is two lots of Zara 8ply - in Felix's favourite colours, of course! It was a complete success, so much so that I'm working on a smaller black one for a friend. Now all I need to do is embroider the Van Halen logo on it.

Very rock, indeed,

Oops.

I was happily knitting away last night and boasting to Felix that I'd soon be finished knitting up my Blu pants. My smugness was diminished somewhat by Felix asking "What about the jumper?". Oops.

I have a jumper I need to finish 12 rows on, wet block, sew up and add button bands, all so I can hand it back to one of my customers. Luckily, I know she's not overly anxious about it, and the longer I take the longer I can avoid it. It's 80's Fair Isle and it's rather involved, you see. My lovely client told me no rush and I'm taking her at her word.

I might make some small knitting bags instead.

A New Year idea

Just after January 1st passed Felix told me about an idea he'd read on a website. The basic premise is that you complete 101 tasks or ideas in 1001 days, which  is 2.7 years. I thought it was a great idea, so we've set up a list with 40 for me, 40 for him and 21 that we both want to do either separately or together. Unsurprisingly, finishing up my UFO's and WiP's for both knitting and sewing are on my list. Truly surprising is that I've actually started.

Marcus' overdue winter pj's actually came in handy with our fabulous Melbourne weather the last fortnight. When it snows in January in Australia, the world is truly upside down.

Next in the sewing pile was a patchwork quilt for Marcus, because we moved him into a cot minus one side, a sort of baby bed and we wanted to make it a bit of an occasion for him.

It wasn't too hard to dig into my sewing pile to finish things up. I've been avoiding my knitting needles this summer - too warm, too humid, too icky. Oh, and I usually have the world's largest baby squashing my lap.

Instead I've been sewing...

...and sewing...

...and sewing...

...and sewing.

Small children require a lot of clothes, and I have an awful lot of fabric to use up (an unofficial goal of mine).

Yesterday Chantal came round for a knit and gossip session, but only on the condition that I got out a UFO to work on. Grrrrr went my brain, but I agreed and delved into the box in the workroom. First project out of the box was Blu that I'd started on a whim for Marcus. He's far to big for it now but it'll be a perfect fit for Dot so I guess I should thank Chantal after all!

To add to my to-do pile, however, #69 on my list was to join a crochet-a-long for a rug.

Square #1 for January is done...

... as is Square #2. I'm not sure if they'll all be this swift, but I certainly hope so!