20130227

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.


20130222

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:

20130221

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



20130220

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? 

20130219

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.