Mini Sweater Challenge #2

I started the second sweater of the Mini Sweater Challenge. This time I went with a superwash wool in sock weight, specifically leftover yarns. This one is a top down, turtleneck with fair isle (I think).

I think if I did it again, I’d use a solid instead of a lovely variegated. Much as I love the variegated yarn, it sort of gets muddled in the sea of yellow in the sweater.

Still, Green Panda (his eyes, not his self) seems to like it well enough. Thank goodness knitting stretches and that toys don’t complain when you pull stuff over their head.

Meow

I try not to knit every gift. Especially now that my children and their friends are getting older and don’t necessarily appreciate hand knits. But some kids do. We’ll be attending a Princess Tea in a few weeks, and having knitted for the birthday girl’s mother and had those gifts stolen (a bat and a ghost), I figured she’d be the kind of kid who liked knitted gifts. So I checked in with mom about her current favorite animals (my own kids like list and have first, second, and third favorite animals. For one that is Panda, Koala, Seahorse and Dolphin & the other is Snow Seal, Penguin, Fox). This little girl likes cats. Perfect! I’ve knit a cat before.

And while the pattern was cute, knitting toys, I’ll have to admit, is not my favorite. So I turned to crochet. I followed a super cute little pattern for a bunny, planning on making the ears shorter and more pointed.

Objectively, it’s not terrible, right? But my husband says it looks like a bear. And it’s just not…quite. Right?

Besides, I was hoping to fit it into a mint container similar to the bears I’d made before.

So back to the drawing board.

And I’m so glad I did. This time, the crochet went much better. I hailed back to the basic shape of the Dumpling Kitty.

But smaller. And I added some accessories. And I LURVE IT!

Tomten/Gnome

I knit a female Tomten/Gnome character for a friend for BlogHer. I love the idea of these protective little sprites. And this year I was, once again, faced with what the heck to give my father for Christmas. I decided to embark on yet another Gnome. I love the ones by Alan Dart…but the “I can do that” spirit is strong in me.

Getting started took forever and the little boot/socks sat on my desk for weeks before I made progress.

Then the rest of him came together in a day! I stuffed his body with rocks in a sock so that his little legs could hang off the edge of a shelf and he (hopfully) won’t fall over.

The original plan was to just do the nose and beard and sew the hat down so you couldn’t tell I hadn’t done any face. But as I got going, I just loved the idea of some little eyebrows.

& I gave him a little fringe all the way ’round his little head.

Belfry

It’s beena  veritable belfry around here with all the bats I’ve been knitting. I knit them at the pool.

I knit them listening to podcasts (to be fair, this one was for the Cultivate and Create Creepy Crawly Critter Along as well as as a hostess gift).

Bad Mom

One of the ripple bonuses of attending BlogHer this year has been the occasional email reaching out to talk about mutually beneficial opportunities.

A few weeks ago a rep for ThinkJam got ahold of me and asked if I’d want to watch the movie “Bad Moms” in exchange for a blog post. Uhm, yes please! I even had the perfect opportunity – my 40th birthday craft night! Except, of course, that being moms meant there was already too much on all of our plates. So instead, I watched the movie in mini-segments during quiet time. Ha! At least I got some knitting in.

I had fun giggling to myself during the movie as I finished these bats for my girls. I’m definitely in the Bad Mom camp!

“Bad Moms” the movie is from Universal Home Entertainment and is available on Digital HD now and Blu-ray / DVD on Nov. 1 if you want to catch up with the exploits of Mila Kunis as the titular misbehaving mama of the movie and Christina Applegate as her too perfect to be perfect nemesis.

Since we’re just starting on the school path with a kindergartner this year, I can definitely see myself falling in to some of the traps of trying to be everything to everyone – though the art department on the move is way better at school crafts than even my Pinterest enhanced skills can match.

Check out the movie and some of the party games – assuming you can spare a moment from those perfect children of yours. Is it bad that the full-time-at-home Kristen Bell is the movie mom I most identified with?

No Gnome is Good Gnome

I don’t consider myself a toy knitter, though my Ravelry page is scattered with toys. I’d rather knit socks, shawls, cowls, or even sweaters but the toys are so damn cute.

This undertaking is in prep for BlogHer 2016. I’m hoping to have a couple mini gift bags for friends. This one is for the sister of a friend. So my group, but sort of extended group 🙂  I admit the name is a bit of nostalgia from when the Great Space Coaster would say “No Gnus is Good Gnus.”

This little lady is a Tomte, it’s sort of a Christmas spirit or sprite. Usually they are shown as male, but Alan Dart made a great pattern and I couldn’t help producing a little female.