22 hands

During the last five years of knitting together, AJ has taken various snapshots of my hands in action. I always look forward to seeing those photos in her albums, and asked her to turn them into a collage for this blog.

Click through for the full-sized photo

Big round of applause!

1st law of craft photography

1st law of craft-photography:
If there is a cat in the vicinity of your work when you arrange it to take a picture, said feline will gravitate towards either project or lense.

Ikiryo

Akuma

Oni

Mokumokuren

But sometimes posing them is just too damn funny:

Bruges SnB

Our stitch n bitch saw the lights of Bruges for the first time in December 2007. A couple of weeks before that, two knitting souls had found each other and decided to start knitting in public.
We've been dilligently posting blog updates ever since, much depending on Ameria's lovely photography.

Read the blog

Kissie

 

Once upon a long time ago, I wrote a pattern for a creature seen in a soda commercial:

Kissie

Materials:

Worsted weight yarns in white and red

Eyelash yarn white

Crochet thread in brown or black

Crochet hooks: 1, 5mm, 3,0mm and 3,5 mm

Beads

Stitch markers

Tapestry needle

~°~

Instructions:

Legs & body in white worsted weight yarn

Head & tail in white worsted weight yarn held together with white eyelash yarn

Lips in red worsted weight yarn

Collar in crochet thread

4 legs:

R1: Magic Loop, sc 6

R2- R4: sc 6

Finish, leave long yarn tails for sewing

Tail:

Work in rows, not rounds

R1: ch 3

R2: sc 2

Finish, leave long tail for sewing

Body:

R1: Magic Loop, sc 6

R2: *2sc in 1* to end = 12sc

R3: *1 sc, 2sc in 1* to end = 18sc

R4 – R 10:  sc all = 18 sc

R11: *1 sc, 1sc in 2* to end = 12sc

R12: 1sc in 2 = 6sc

Finish, leave long yarn tail for sewing

Head:

R1: Magic Loop, sc 6

R2: *2sc in 1* to end = 12sc

R3: *1 sc, 2sc in 1* to end = 18sc

R4: *2sc, 2sc in 1* to end = 24sc

R5: *3sc, 2sc in 1* to end = 30sc

R6: *4sc, 2sc in 1* to end = 36sc

R7 – R9: sc all = 36

R10: *4sc, 1sc in 2* to end = 30sc

R11: *3sc, 1sc in 2* to end = 24sc

R12: *2sc, 1sc in 2* to end = 18sc

R13: *1 sc, 2sc in 1* to end = 12sc

R14: *1sc in 2* to end = 6sc

Finish, leave long yarn tail for sewing

2x lips:

R1: Magic Loop, sc 6

R2: *2sc in 1* to end = 12sc

R3: *1 sc, 2sc in 1* to end = 18sc

R4: *2sc, 2sc in 1* to end = 24sc

R5: *3sc, 2sc in 1* to end = 30sc

Lower lip: Fold in half, make sure points of hexagon align and close with sc.

Upper lip: Fold in half, make sure points of hexagon align and close half way with sc. Ch1, turn,

sc to lowest point, ch1, turn, sc back to center. Fasten off, leave tail for lip shaping.

Work other side from bottom corner to center in the same way.

Collar:

Slip 10 – 15 beads on crochet thread, ch2, bring bead up, include in next ch2 until chain equals

body circumference. Fasten off.

~°~

Finishing:

Sew legs and tail to body. Make sure the legs are spread rather far apart, to provide stability.

Sew head to body. Leave enough space for head movement, as balancing the huge head on the

tiny body will depend on bending the doll a little bit.

Shape upper lip by securing the ends of red yarn, then attach lips to head.

Join collar under the body and secure the ends.

For the winter babies

Yesterday I sent off two baby presents, today I learned that they arrived.

I made the large bear using a little-known Thai pattern, published on Sayjay's blog, translated by Jaimai.

The other new baby already has a bigger sister, so I tried to make a little something for both. Did you notice the bracelets the bunnies are wearing? 

The mascot

This is my biggest sewing project ever.
One day, remembering that we had talked about my involvement with a group of people who re-build film sets and re-create costumes, my boss came to my office, asking if said group could provide a mascot for the company. That's not really their cup of tea and I knew I would end up sewing the mascot.
I had a week and a decent budget.

When I showed the result to the boss, he blinked away a couple of tears.