HMF

It’s Hand Made Friday! What hand made pieces did you wear today?

HMF

It's Hand Made Friday! What It’s Hand Made Friday! What hand made pieces are you wearing today? I wish I was still up at Lake Tahoe. Did I mention that I saw a bear on Tuesday? 🌲🐻👀😱

OMGurumi Simon / Simone

Last month I made Bridget the Elephant for North Tahoe Knits and received a Simon the Sheep kit in return.



Making the pieces didn't take much time at all, but then they all went into a bag. You see, I really, really don't like sewing up stuffed animals. I'd rather set in sleeves and weave in ends than sew an animal together. But this weekend I decided that Simon waited long enough, so I dumped out the pieces and brought up the TOFT UK videos for guidance.



While I was laying out the pieces, I wondered why I made 3 ears. I had to read the pattern again to before I realized that one of the bits was a tail. Oops. I guess it was quite a while since I put Simon away. The sewing didn't take too long. The head, body, and legs all went together like the elephant so that was a repeat of what I had already done. Positioning the ears was key to making Simon look like a lamb and the pattern photo helped with that.

Before too long Simon was assembled, albeit naked and blind.



Next came the fleece. Ugh. It was easy in theory--*chain 8, sl st to body 2 sts away, repeat from *--but in practice it was slow going. The yarn is DK and the hook is 3mm for a firm fabric, but that meant the "sl st to the body" was a pain. Then, the fleece pattern should be somewhat random. Yeah, I don't do random well. Anyway, the fleece took a while and after that was finished I let Simon rest for the night.

It was a conscious decision to not put the eyes on until morning. I think the eyes alone determine how a friendly or cute stuffed animal looks. It's so easy to get the eyes wrong--too high, too low, too slanted, too far apart, or too close together can make a stuffed animal look mean, rat-like, or just plain goofy. As it was, I had to do Simon's eyes twice to get a look that I was happy with.



Overall I thought the project was a success... except... except for one thing. Simon? No. This is not a Simon, this is a Simone. Yes, that's the finishing touch, Simone.

Apparently she likes it too.

HMF

It's Hand Made Friday! What hand made pieces are you wearing today? Bridget the Elephant is sitting on a coaster from Handmade At The Lake and modeling a Beadlemania necklace I'll be wearing today. Thank you Bridget, you're very photogenic.

Where's Waldo?

Where's Waldo?


Where's Waldo?

Ahhh there he is, eating grass under the branch.


Waldo Cottontail

Knitting up a storm

Why was I so bundled up on Friday? Because we were heading up to Tahoe for some holiday skiing!



And when I wasn't skiing, I was knitting. My first priority was a test knitting a sock for Margit aka Fiber Fiend. She's going to be selling the pattern and yarn for Caged. Look for her fiber and patterns (and this sock) in Booth #738 at Stitches West. (Click on a photo for a closer look.)


Fiber Fiend's Caged sock


Fiber Fiend's Caged sock

I also finished the homework for Susanna Hansson's Lapland Hand Garments class this Friday.

Stitches West homework

Weather was beautiful for the entire weekend and although we were scheduled to return yesterday, circumstances required us to stay another day. This morning we were greeted with 6" of fresh snow and it was still falling.


A snowy morning

Okay, okay, so it wasn't exactly a "storm", but the title sounded good. By the time we started home the roads were clear and it was smooth sailing.

I'd like to write more, but I have so much to do before tomorrow.

See you at Stitches West!!

A long weekend

We spent the long weekend in Lake Tahoe. The weather was nice... almost too nice. There was very little snow at lake level which was bothersome. Does this mean the "D"-word will be tossed about this spring? I wouldn't doubt it. Drought. Ugh.

We did get a light dusting one evening, but it was gone by noon the next day.



A long weekend in the mountains was the perfect opportunity to work on a project that has been lingering on the back burner for quite a while. In fact, I told myself that I needed to finish at least one sweater before starting something new. However, that didn't stop me from knitting this swatch during the drive up.

Lanaknits Hemp Cardigan swatch, washed and blocked .


The pattern and yarn are from Lanaknits purchased last year at Stitches West. So that's as far as I got--swatched, washed, and blocked.

Then it was time to grit my teeth and finish the old project. It seemed like I was seaming and weaving ends the entire weekend. There was a little knitting as well, but that was a drop in the bucket compared to the time I spent with my darn-ing needle. The last end was secured during the drive home. Whew! I'll post more about the project later, but for now here's a peek at the finished sweater.

VK Diamond Pullover take 2 .


With that finished, I was freed of my commitment and could start on the hemp cardigan.

Lanaknits Hemp Cardigan .


I'm going to need a more portable and hand friendly project for Stitches West this week, so I went stash diving and came up with another purchase from SW last year, Lisa Souza SOCK! Merino.

Petroglyph .


Speaking of Stitches West, I'm taking a knitting class and a design class this year. In 6 hours, Beth Brown Reinsel will show me how to turn these humble balls of Cascade 220 into twined mittens.

SW homework .