Here I am again.....

There are several projects in progress, but thought I would show you the latest finished ones.  Three pair of slippers from a pattern by Sandy Sherman at Baby Jane Machine Knits.  Love this pattern.  Two pair have found homes, the third will stay with me since there is a glaring mistake.  I lost count of the rows and made one too much smaller than the other to be of use to anyone.  Bummer!

The purple and blue pair will stay with me because I made one foot so much smaller than the other.  The red pair are on their way to Canada for a cousin's daughter and the pastel pair are for my Mom.  She likes them.

This pattern is the first thing I learned to do on the knitting machine.  Sandy Sherman gave me some guidance and I found they are quick and easy to do.  I don't doubt that I will be making more of them.  All three of these are adult sizes but these can be made for any size.  That's one thing I love about Sandy's patterns, there are always so many size options.

Let me know what you think.

Well it's me again.  It's funny that every time I make something there are a myriad of spinoffs in my head.  Same is true with this one.
First a young friend sent me a picture of a hat she liked and asked me if I could make something like it.  Well the original takes periodic purl rows and since I don't have a garter bar, I improvised.
Took the hat to her today and she liked, it fit and all is right with the world.  I got a charge out of it when she said "I love this yarn", which is exactly the yarn I used.
So here you'll find pictures of Anna's hat.  She looks good in the hat and she's happy with it.

Oh, and the loose yarn has been sewn in, that's not part of the finished hat.

Toodles

Just adding the last of the two

So, assignment finished for now.  Took these pictures this morning.  The young lady is my niece.  The hat is obviously too big, but she's not yet 10.  This hat is actually larger than the other one.  Both have embellishments that are sewn to pin backs. Note that the *bow* attached to the rose as a background piece is a scrap from yesterday's attempt at needle felting.  Waste not want not as the saying goes.  As an aside, it took me YEARS to figure out what that saying meant....as did, Petunia ain't got no friend, and  you can't have your cake and eat it too,.....but I digress!

Toodels

Putting new knowledge to use

Okay, I ain't sayin it's all that pretty, but it's a new effort to repurpose hats that went wrong.  Oh yeah, they went wayyyy wrong.  First the color they went in the washing machine with didn't come out the other side, and then, the never did shrink.  So they've been sitting around here taking up space and niggling at the back of my head to morph into something......this morning they did.  Well, maybe morphed isn't quite the word, maybe it's more they splurffed into being.  I cut pieces out of several hats and used a felting needle to hammer them into what looks like a giant amoeba with a suntan.  It's not, as I said, pretty, but I think it's interesting and it's another foray into needle felting.  I'm thinking next time I'll be making a hat embellishment for a pin back, it will have a more,.....cohesive?,.............no, I know, *defined* shape.  Yes, yes, that's it....I'll make a fish shape for the next one.  That outta be good dontcha think?  Yep, yepper, I believe I'll make a fish.

So friends, I'm off to make more hats and stuff. ;-)

Toodles for now

EmilyStyle: To Do: Ribbon Embroidery

EmilyStyle: To Do: Ribbon Embroidery

Flower Power Eggs 1865x1865 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Flower Power Eggs 1865x1865 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

First attempt at Eeyore

Okay, it's also my first attempt at stuffing something.  It's not all that pretty.  There will be a second attempt.  I would like to "tweek" this a whole lot.  Not entirely happy with results.  Ah well, live and learn.

Felted flowers attempt

So, as I said, I'm learning to make felted embellishments for the hats.  After searching high and low for patterns, this is the result.  Also bought a book and the tools for doing punch felting.  Made one attempt at that, forgot to photo, but will remember next time.  Anyhoo, this is what came out of my fevered little brain this time. ;-)

The embellishment is supposedly a Calla Lily, a red rose bud and two leaves.  I'll leave it to your imagination to supply the rest.  This is my first attempt as I say, and there are other things percolating such as using tulle, ribbons, buttons, etc., if you're a fellow crafter you know what I mean.


Feedback would be good.

New colors

New hats ready to take to Topeka.  Hope people like these ones.  I have more in the works.  Am going to use patterns in a felting book to make flowers to pin to some one color hats.  I've been told that if the embellishments are removable they appeal to a wider number of people.  Love the colors in these ones.  Wool was sent to me by my friend Judi.  With her encouragement I've been rather successful in making these.  I've begun branching out to make each hat a bit different.  These are plainer than the last ones I posted but I'm very happy with them.  Off to make more.  Hopefully they'll catch on and I'll be able to make more.

Four more hats

These are all knit from sheep's wool courtesy of McRanch at Dripping Springs, TX.  I've tried to be a bit creative with these ones.  A good friend has let me know that embellishments that are permanently attached, limit the number of people who would want that.  SO, I've pulled out my book on felting so as to be able to make felted embellishments like leaves and flowers that can be attached with pins or very small stitch holders.  We'll see how that works.  DRUM ROLL please!!!

 

On cats and dogs

I've been trying for a very long time to get pictures of Prince the cat beside one of the dogs for size comparison.  Finally I got my chance.  Spot the dog is about 60 lbs.  The smaller cat is Mikey and I know for sure he's about 15 lbs.  Spot and Butch are nearly the same weight.  Butch weighs about 55lbs.

Okay, I'm on a bit of a roll here......

Here's the second one I made.  Have to get creative with hot water situation.  Doesn't get hot enough to shrink the hats the first time round.  This one took four, (yes 4) trips through the washer.  It's a bit larger than the one I posted yesterday.  As you see the last photo is both hats side by side.  The one from yesterday is for a small head.  This one fits a medium to large.  Both are posted for sale on ArtFire.

My I-cord hat

Dreamed this one up a couple of days ago.  Had trouble felting the silly thing.  Had to run it through the washer four times.  There's another one doing it's fourth journey through the washing machine.  Different kind of yarn and a bit different in design.  If it works out will post that one too.

 The bottom two pictures you will see what it looked like before the fourth spin round the washer. Very 60's but unless the wearer has a very big head, it wouldn't have worked.  Comments anyone??