Day 016: knit your booties

I know, I didn't post a picture yesterday...terrible! Eventually I will go back and post a picture and backdate it - maybe make a specific day each month to do it? I'll likely forget again at some point... :\ - but not right now.

Yesterday was kind of hectic: I didn't get to sleep until three in the morning, so I was running on three hours of sleep, and instead of staying home and sleeping it off, I had my first day back at spinning in the morning and a therapy session in the afternoon. I was so tired by the time I got home at 6.30pm that I went almost straight to bed. The almost is where I did in fact make it into bed, but didn't actually go to sleep until 10.30pm; I stayed awake knitting most of the little bootie in the picture. I finished the little sucker off today, and started on its mate, which will be finished tomorrow at some point.

The booties are prototypes for the booties I'm making for the expectant mothers I know. My friend Kate and her husband Craig have requested rainbow coloured (Kate) and green (Craig) beanies for their sprog (gender neutral ftw!), and I'm throwing in the booties because reasons (I may throw in a blanket, too, again because reasons). For my boss Tennille, I am making a beanie, bib, mittens and booties set in the colours of a ginger tuxedo tabby (the beanie will have kitten ears, the bib will be white linen edged with orange, and the mittens and booties will have kitten paw pads in pink mulberry silk embroidered onto them). Tennille once told me she had a soft spot for ginger tabbies, a soft spot I share, so I think she'll appreciate the set.

Well, I am super-exhausted, so I'm going to sign off. Nighty-night!

C xoxo

Day 010: Fibre Art Friday! - Operation Albino Sand Mongoose

From here on out, every second Friday will be Fibre Art Friday. Fibre Art Friday posts will feature photographs of crocheted, knitted, or woven creations made from spun fibres from sheep, alpaca, the cocoons of silkworms, bamboo or wood or corn pulp, and so on.

This week's creation is what I called Operation Albino Sand Mongoose whilst it was in progress: a stuffed toy meerkat.

For Christmas, I received a few books, one of which was the book Knitted Meerkats by Sue Stratford. This little guy started out as a sort of dare to myself: could I actually make something like this, despite being an absolute beginner knitter?

Turns out the answer is yes. :)

Since I didn't have the beige yarn the instructions called for, I knitted this guy from white commercial wool and some of my own handspun brown-toned Blue-faced Leicester (for the contrasting features). Once I had all the parts knitted, I sewed most of him together, stuffed him with hypoallergenic acrylic stuffing, gave a rose petal heart, and weighted down with 40c in his bum to make him stand upright, and finishdd sewing him up. His head and back legs are fixed, but his forelegs are movable, and his tail can be shaped to a certain extent.

I'm pretty happy with how he's turned out, although next time I'll use a fuzzier yarn: when his "skin" was pulled taut as I gave him his stuffing, some of the stitches pulled and you could see the stuffing underneath. This guy still isn't a quite finished; I need to find some beads to serve as his eyes. Since he is white, I think I'll give him one gold and one blue eye, in honour of my foster kittens Lea and Luc.

Next time on Fibre Art Friday: hopefully pictures of my completed hooded capelet!

A domani!

C xoxo