On the needles: Long Over Due

Now because of November Writer Craziness I didn't knit that much but now with Christmas just around the corner my needles are clicking  at the speed of that little Mexican mouse (or was he a Kangaroo Rat? I don't remember someone help me out here.) any way so I have a ton to talk about on my little needles, even a finished projects.

First I'm still working on the Velvet Morning Cardigan, I just am not going to take an individual picture because it hasn't actually changed very much. soon I will be don't with the body and starting on the sleeves. I'm thinking of trying to do the sleeves at the same time, I just don't know about it because of the color work. any way.

In the spirit of Advent I got a visit from the advent fairy. to help me get my Christmas gifts done this year the Advent fairy gave me money to by the yarn that i needed to finish. In this picture you can see the three pairs of socks I have to finish for Christmas, the two hanks of yarn are the gifts I was only able to get because of the advent fairy:

Still on the subject of these socks I finished one pair I'm a little worried about how the received of these socks will like the strange stripes but I like them I think they are pretty cool.

Pair number two is almost done, I'm a little worried, the die lot of the yarn is different and one of the colors in the color way is a little brighter then in the other yarn. but the knitters at knit night assure me that no one but me will ever really notice.

And pair number three the one that has the most work ahead of it, this is the only sock that I have started:

Now I did buy some new yarn that was my reward for writing 50,000 words was Spun and died by my friend Stephanie. Her Yarn is called Lunabudknits. The yarn is called Little Bear (100% Alpaca) in the color way Euryale. I love it. it is going into making my very first shawl. The shawl I'm knitting with it is the Japanese Waves Rectangle Shawl, it's available for free at Ravelry.

Now this is the last thing I want to show you is the elefante I knitted for the daughter of the UsualFool. For fun I thought I would take pictures as I put the toy together so you could see some of the work that goes into making a hand knit toy.

 

Here are the pieces. we have a body, a head with trunk, two ears and four legs

The first thing I did was give it eyes. Now because the eyes were going on the purple stripe I tried to give it white eyes. this looked too creepy to give to a two year old so he got googly eyes. 

Next I attacked the ears. Now latter I realized that according to the directions I put the eyes on the bottom of the head, so the head is actually upside-down. But this is something that only i see, everyone else thinks that it is perfect. hahaha little do they know all the little imperfections that I made. 

The next step was to put the legs or feet, each foot is put on separately. The first one is the hardest to put in the right location, the last is the hardest to put on because the other legs keep getting in the way of the needle.

Now we put on the head. This is the funnies part because the head is way bigger then the body. I don't know why it just is. In this picture you can see the strings that will become the tail. The purple thread is actually the thread that was used to attach the head. I figured this was a great way to reinforce it so that a toddler couldn't take it a part. this is also the only picture I have of the final product. 

The last step is the tail. I attached several threads and then braided them. with this done I proceed to test it's durability by swinging it around by it's tail and pulling on all of the parts because I gave it to a two year old. while my hope is that this is a toy she will cuddle with we all know that it will be a weapon to hit her daddy with.






well that was a long post but it had lots of pictures so I hope you enjoyed it. Till next time God Speed and Open Roads.