Friday, March 21, 2008

Run away! Run away!

A person on Craftster today had an awesome suggestion. She suggested that we turn one of the cute little Easter bunnies (see previous post) into the killer rabbit from Monty Python's Holy Grail. We are soooo gonna do this. The Eldest is dying to have a killer rabbit.

Now the question is: how do we do this?


I'm going to use embroidery floss for the evil eyebrows and possibly the eyes, though I might use a button for those. That parts easy, but the mouth?

In the photo, (click to enlarge it) there is blood all around the mouth, and a lot of it too. I could, again, do embroidery, but it might take forever. I could also use paint on it or even food coloring. I'll have to think about that one. I might make up a small swatch and test out the paint & food coloring to see how it will work and if it will spread out. We're going to be dealing with acrylic yarn here, so craft paint might be better than food coloring.

There are also the huge fangs. I-cord seems the way to go. It needs to be fairly stiff. Floral wire poked up through the I-cord might make that workable. I've never really worked with i-cord that much. Can you make one end pointy? You know, like a fang? Hmmmm...

So, while I'm supposed to be cleaning house and making cute bunnies for the company coming over this weekend, what will I really be doing? You guessed it! I will, of course, take pics of the whole project for you. See ya on Monday!

Run away! Run away! Run away! :)

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Ta-Da!

Finished in 10 days flat. Fastest sweater I've ever knit and it fits to a T! It's now blocking on my freezer, the only flat space that doesn't have a child or animal on it. Oh, and welcome to my red powder room. :)


Got something else for you that I did today at naptime:

This little guy only took about an hour to do. It's a free download that you can get from Heartstrings. Super Simple and perfect for Easter. I'm going to make three more, one for the other son and two for my nephews. They would all prefer cars, but they're getting stuck with bunnies.

Bunny Profile

Same bunny, different view
I'm considering tying a different color yarn around each of the bunny necks so that each kid will know his own bunny. They tend to get a little possessive. :)


Forgot to mention that I modified the pattern. The tail called for you to sew a puff of the stuffing to the rear end. However, this is going to small children and could be pulled off too easily. So I knit a small square about the size of the ears, but without the decreases. Then I sewed the tips of the squares together, stuffed the ball and then sewed it in place. Worked like a charm!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Meltdown, Mommy style

Mommy had a wee bit of a melt down this evening.

What caused the problems? Take a wild guess, no really, go ahead. I'll wait.

Yep. The Youngest again.


Early this morning the Youngest decided to trip and fall in the back yard and bash his little forehead with a great big rock. It sorta set the tone for the whole rest of the day. Not good. Wouldn't eat lunch or dinner. Screamed at me all day - and not in the pitiful I need mommy way either, absolutely evil. I could do no right. So as soon as Daddy came home, I ran away. I also needed to go get Easter "stuff" and used that as my excuse to run away. I left Dad bathing the two beauties and getting them all to bed. Do I feel guilty, ummm, no. Not a damn bit. I feel better now.


Little to no knitting has been done today, but a sweater will be completed by tomorrow's post. I've only a few rows to go, 11 to be exact. See ya then!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Pink Panther Purl Cuff

Hey, I passed my 200th post and didn't even notice. Cool!

I finished one sleeve of the Pink/Gray Sweater. I decided to do 3/4 sleeves instead of full. That way, I can wear it a few more seasons of the year.

On the cuff, I wanted to accent the pink that is in the yoke of the sweater, but I didn't want the pink to necessarily draw the eye to it. So I decided on a pink purl row with three gray rows then another pink purl row. This color of pink so reminds me of the Pink Panther!

The Unblocked Pink Panther Purl Cuff

Monday, March 17, 2008

Knitting and Two Men Without a Shirt

I had a nice weekend. On Friday the kids and I took off to my parents place out on Lake Wedowee, Alabama. The water level is back up in the lake and it was so pretty. The weather was perfect and the kids spent a lot of time playing outside.

My Mom and I were watching the lake from the kitchen window and saw something fairly amusing. There were two boats in the water. Both had three men in them. Both boats had one guy wearing blue. And both boats had a guy in the middle with no shirt on. All of the guys in both boats were wearing baseball caps. It kinda sounds like the beginning of a complicated word/logic problem doesn't it? I tried to take a picture of it for you, but my camera phone won't zoom in clearly that far.

I did a bunch of knitting this weekend and this is the current results:
Inside Out
The body of the sweater is done and I began the sleeves this afternoon. I was too lazy to turn this thing right-side out to take a pic, but you get the general idea don't you? I haven't decided if I am going to do full length sleeves or three quarter length sleeves. Either way, I will have a tiny amount of pink at the cuffs I think. I'll probably do those in purl so that I can get a thinner straight line. I just want to echo the pink a tiny bit. I was going to do the cuffs like I did the yoke, but I think it will be too much.

Either way, I have strayed away from the original pattern. I've changed the waist shaping and the arms and I changed the raglan increases at the shoulders. At this point, it's just a basic raglan, nothing fancy and certainly not the Purple Sweater that I was going to make. It fits beautifully, though I still need to lose some serious weight in the tummy area to really show it off well.

Edited to Add: Forgot to mention why this is wrong-side out didn't I? When I work with two circs in the round, the wrong side is always out. Don't know why or how I began doing this, I just know it works for me. Anyone else do this?