Monday, July 25, 2005

Kitty Bed Ahoy!

Yeah, I've been working a lot and stressing, but I finally got a zippered pillow case and felted my merino kitty bed.

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Hopefully you can tell from this picture that it has shrunk considerably. Unfortunately I didn't have a 15-inch platter to stretch the felt on, so it dried on my 12 inch one wrapped in towels. (which wasn't very taut) I'm thinking Smokey might not mind the bumps in the center, or Mom can stretch it on her pie keeper perhaps after I mail it to her. I'm excited though... it was my first venture into felting and I think it went very well. I'm still amazed (though I shouldn't be) that the thing stands up on its own. Ya ta! (Now to mail it. :)

What else that is neeto is how the two vareigated yarns held together blended into a mottled-yet-purty whole. There's this spiral pattern on the back outside that is cool and was totally unanticipated (at least by me).

What's on the needles now? I've been working on a gumdrop monster inspired by a LiveJournal crafty person I know primarily as crochetsamurai (The coolest name!). She has a web site with critters for sale, Pepperberry. She's got the coolest marine stuff*d t*ys, and a couple weeks ago she tried her hand at making a monster. Now, I would be hard put to making a stuff*d squid, but hopefully I can try to make a monster. Especially since ideal symmetry isn't a requirement.

Since my 5 yr old cousin Zefferin is obsessed with Poke mon, (and his noun for random-animal-spotted IS stuff like 'water Poke mon', 'air Poke mon', etc) I thought he might like a blue homage-to-the-gumdrop-monsters. I'll try and post a picture in a couple days... right now he's a blue blob with two blue paws and two black horns. If I'd had a brain, I'd have taken a picture of him with the kitty bed... ahh well. I get to figure out how to sew a face onto him tonight at SnB.

Okay, gotta go do lab work. :)

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

The new Knitty is up!

This would be www.knitty.com, btw. Most of the patterns are pretty cool. Some are a bit odd, but that's Knitty for you. =)

I'm still sad that I didn't make it in. I understand now a lot of Dan's frustration that most form letters don't tell you what precisely was wrong with your submission, so that you could fix it for next time. Ach well.

I still think I might shorten Dan's vest a bit so it's not too long. That and someday make it up out of a less toasty yarn weight so the poor man doesn't cook because he loves me. And knit it in two peices, back and forth, so that there's not a wierdness issue when I go from circs to straights.

However, while I'm dissapointed, I still learned a lot. Just like baseball, maybe next time. :)