Seriously, another Knit Chicken?

Clearly I have a problem.  (And to my sister who had the thought "Just one?" a second ago, I'll get you for that, beware you may be forced to laugh at something so hard a beverage comes out your nose.) Anyway, back to my problem, it's the damn knit toys!  I can't stop making them.  I see this pattern by Susan B. Anderson for chickens and I think that's a cute pattern. But nothing I really need to make. But then looking through the projects on ravelry I see the chicken made with these great charts that a ravelry user has been so gracious as to put up on her blog. 

There is something about the colors and the wing pattern that reminds me of this set of chicken knick-knack things that my grandmother used to have on top of her fridge and suddenly I really wanted to make this bird. Ah, nostalgia.  The fact that I happened to have all the colors I needed  just hanging around in my stash made it a done deal. 

Since the last thing I need is another stuffed animal in my place and he's a bit too country to fit with my style the chicken will soon be crossing the road and traveling up to Maine to enjoy the simple life of my folks place there. 

The charts are available here at rav member, ElleM's blog. You still need to buy the original pattern, the blog just has the charts for the stranded design.

I would say this is the last toy I will be knitting for a while but my mom just asked if I'd make a toy for the grand-daughter of one of her friends.  And seriously can I stop knitting toys for longer than a few months? Apparently not.

Totoro and his Mittens

Last month Craftzine had this post showing Totoro mittens, and I immediately thought of my cousin who is a big fan of Totoro.  The next day I get an email from said cousin hinting strongly that she loves those mittens and she did have a birthday in January.....

(By the way, Totoro is from Hayao Miyazaki’s Japanese animated film "My Neighbor Totoro".  I have it on my Netflix queue but there is a Loooooong Wait for it. )

Since it does not take a whole lot of arm twisting to get me to A) Make something cutesie and B) Knit stranded mittens - I knew what what my next project would be. I had some Berroco Ultra Alpaca in Winter White leftover from the scarf I had made my cousin for Hannukah so her new mittens will match perfectly. I headed downtown to my LYS to pick up a blue or grey and found this great new colorway of Ultra Alpaca called Blue Steel.  A great color (I like greys) and the added bonus of sounding like a cheesy 80s action movie. Then woman ringing up my sale asked my what I was making, it turns out she is a huge Miyazaki fan and was thrilled to talk knitting and japanese film. 

I seemed to bang out the mittens pretty quickly, there are some long floats that you have to deal with but otherwise a straightforward knit.  I think they are pretty sweet.

After the mittens were done I still had a ton of Blue Steel left over so I scanned through rav and found the cutest stuffed Totoro.  Turns out a ingenious ravelry user had adapted the stuffed cat, Kate from Knitty into Totoro and was kind enough to put all the changes in her project notes (I love rav).  I got this guy done in one night of insomnia with just some detail work to be done the next day.  He is pretty frakkin' adorable if I do say so myself.

Elijah & Sheldon

I am a bit late with these guys but a friend of mine had twin boys a few months back and I am just finishing up their gifts now.  Initially, I scoured ravelry looking at patterns for sweaters, hats, blankets but then I realized I love knitting toys but really don't want to keep them so this was the best of all worlds.  I feel a kinship to the new baby boys since it turns out I was there when my friend started labor, she was completely unphased and was sure it was Braxton Hicks (um, it wasn't)  and we kept chatting away.  Her boys arrived bright and early the next morning - on my birthday. Well, our birthday now.

First there is Sheldon the Turtle. I have wanted to knit this up since that issue of Knitty came out.  I even used the recommended yard and colors. It's actually a bit fiddly for a toy, there's some crochet in there, applied i-cord but it was all worth it. I love that you can take his shell on and off.  There are a whole bunch of examples on ravelry where people have made other outfits for him, lions, cowboy, police, Santa even ick a bat.  He's like his very own Village People.

Then there is Elijah.  This adorable elephant is done with no seaming at all.  Yay, for that! More than once I thought about how her design process must have worked because there are some ingenious parts to it. Since it involved knitting the limbs by picking up stitches I found it easier to use *gasp* DPNs instead of Magic Loop.

The two have become fast friends already and I look forward to hearing of their adventures with my friend's little boys.

Is this Another Chicken Joke?

Dear Yarn Stash,

I am sorry for being so bitchy this week. Really I don't hate you. I don't think you are ugly. I don't want to get new yarn to replace you (well....we won't talk about that) I was just having a hard time figuring out what to cast on next. I grabbed that nice skein of Silky Wool and really I tried to start that cowl but it just wasn't happening. So I scoured and scoured ravelry until I found something completely silly that made me smile. And I did use some of your lovely stash. So I think the knitting funk that I was in for a few days has passed. Thank you for putting up with me.

-Sarah


So what knocked me out of this short-lived funk, as I approached the first day of Spring with grey dreary days and temps that kept hovering in the 30s? A Spring Chicken!



He is just adorable, I love him and he brings out the truly silly in me. As I knit him up I could not stop the chicken jokes. I finished his body, I nibbled on him and said "Mmmm...tastes just like chicken". Then I knit up his feet and played imaginary dim sum cart, "Chicken Feet? No thanks, are the pork buns coming around?" I knit up his tail feathers and of course he did a little dance shaking his tail feathers. There were quite a few crossings of the road or in this case the ottoman.

Yeah, there's a chance I may have lost it a little bit but don't worry I am not going to be that crazy lady totally surrounded by stuffed animals. Spring Chicken has an adventure planned for him so stay tuned.

To be continued.....

All in the Family

Recently my cousin, a hooker, uh, I mean crocheter decided to start knitting as well. So I passed along some books, needles and yarn to feed her new found habit. I had already introduced her to my own version of crack, ravelry, and she just got her invite. May the time sucking begin! Hopefully she will enjoy knitting as much as I do and I can't wait to see what she does! Knowing our family it will involve stuffed animals.

Last month I showed off the completed Elephant Sweater and I did say that I would post pictures when I finally gave Michelle her sweater so without further ado....



And because I am the world's biggest goofball I decided that since every little girl who loves elephants needs an elephant sweater then surely every elephant who loves a little girl needs a Michelle sweater. This is Soggy, Michelle's favorite stuffie, the beginning of her love of elephants and a very snazzy dresser. Funny thing is the Soggy sweater which I made in one night was just as big a hit as Michelle's sweater that I worked many, many hours on. Such is life.

I can't seem to stop!

Clearly I have a problem and I'm willing to admit it. I can't stop knitting toys. Luckily my latest creatures are off to good homes and will not hang around my apartment taunting me with looks of "Aren't you too old for this?"

In my stash busting I came across one skein of Lion Thick & Quick, yes just one skein. Why did I buy this? When did I buy this? What the hell am I going to do with this? Thanks to ravelry I found the Berroco Air Bear pattern. So this little guy who looks a bit more like a fox than a bear will hopefully bring a smile to some child's face. I am doing some charity knitting for Christmas in the City that I found out about from lickmysticks on ravelry.




And then while my cousin (a recent knitter) was going through my knitting books and patterns over Thanksgiving she goes "Oooh robot" and I knew that I was going to have to make her one of the Jess Hutchison robots. I gave him a heart in duplicate stitch which I think turned out very well.