FO: Luff the monkey

Pattern: ITV Digital Monkey by Sirdar, via knittingfever.com

Yarn: Vanna's Choice

Needle: size 5

Knitted while: watching One Piece *hence the name, which would then be pronounced "loof." It's fun if you say it a lot. 

While a good, caring girlfriend would visit her boyfriend at his semi-permanent place (er, nation) of employment... a good, caring, but poor (okay, I'm almost broke) girlfriend knits a stuffed monkey to take her place. 

But this couldn't be just any monkey. It needed substance, personality, and a whole lot of cute; I think this pattern was the only one that would have worked, with all that face detail and room for tweaking. Personalization/mods included making him in snow-monkey colors (sort of?), and substituting the knob-hands and knob-feet with "realistic" mitten-hands and (short-row!) sock-feet. I shortened the "torso" by a few rows. There is also the monkeemaker mouth mod. The ears are also two-colored and crochet-edged. Oh, and I didn't really like the reverse-stockinette look, so he is entirely knit-side-out. I wanted to make a pink butt, too, but ran out of time. Maybe later, though. 

A few notes: 

• I did not find the beans necessary for him to sit up by himself; long-enough arms and legs should do the trick. I do like a beany butt, though. 
• If you make one, buy yourself an extra bag of polyfill. This is not a small monkey. 
• The head is really difficult to stuff. I think the snout looks best if you try to maximize the negative ease.

Result: one of my faves. He is really cute! And each of the finished monkeys I saw on rav has a very distinct look, which I like. I might make this again some time.

FO: February lady sweater

Enter my first cardigan, first top-down raglan, and my new favorite sweater: 

Pattern: February Lady Sweater--Flint Knits

Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy in "creme brulee"

Needles: size 7

Mods: When I first saw the pattern, I was mildly interested but not impressed. I knew I wanted to knit a top-down raglan some day, so this got a plus in my book. But the swing shape? I'm already much narrower above my waist than I am below, so emphasizing that with a fitted chest section and flare below was, I thought, maybe not so appealing. 

And then, while browsing Ravelry one day, I saw Navi's (rav link) and was blown away. The color, the fit--I was in love. And then I saw my abandoned little pile of yellow yarn (originally intended for a hemlock ring blanket to match our black futon/couch, but my roommate bought a new tan couch: amazingly comfy but not yellow-friendly) and had to make her version. 

In a nutshell, the actual modifications include omitting the row of alternating YOs, doing fewer raglan increases, and adding button holes and buttons all the way down the sweater. 

My only issue is that the buttons I chose are so heavy that I have to wear this completely closed, or else bits curl and flap and dangle. All-buttoned-up isn't so bad, really, but after sewing the third button on from the top I realized that the original FLS swing-cardi shape actually looked okay on me after all. And honestly, I was getting tired of sewing buttons on. But I am still happy with the final product! It's a great spring cardigan and would be great in other bright colors, too. 

Next: finishing up loose ends with Thermal and the hot springs monkey.

Cue Totoro theme music!

Happy birthday to Hannah! This may be the first present I have actually finished before the the actual date. 

Does everyone know who Totoro is? He is one of the main characters in となりのトトロ (Tonari no Totoro, or My Neighbor Totoro--IMDB link), a Japanese children's movie created by the same Studio Ghibli of Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away fame in the United States and elsewhere in the world. The film was released over 20 years ago, but it has definitely hit what we would consider "Disney status" in Japan; even when I last visited Kyoto just a few months ago, Totoro was still in almost every major department store there. 

Anyway, Totoro happens to be one of Hannah's favorite characters. This works fantastically well for me; what if her favorite character was, say, Cthulhu? (That would be good needle-felting practice, though.) I sort-of successfully crocheted a Totoro for Hannah last year, but I had to make another Totoro this year since it sort of doubles as a going-away gift for her.

The first, if you remember, looked something like this:

Pattern credit: LJ user heavens_hellcat.

Note the mysterious piece of black moss stitch fabric underneath... sigh. That would be an IK Minimalist Cardigan. I'll pick that project up soon, I hope.

The eyes are far too big because I did not yet know how to do a proper closed "magic loop" start for crochet and thus had white rings and not disks for eye whites. Embroidering them shut did not work very well, so I used the big safety eyes I used for Kate instead. Not very Totoro-like, I guess.

For this new needle-felted Totoro I found the pack of beads I'd bought to make Tiny Bear and then sized everything up from there. Note to self: that's probably a good rule of thumb from now on.

Anyway, I purchased the roving from The Felted Ewe and am happy to say that the wool was really easy to work with! I've encountered some too-slippery types before and am glad it was really easy to get a nice, even and dense texture quickly. Though the company is based across the country, if I order a fairly large amount then I think $2.55/oz roving from the Felted Ewe is really worth it. At the same time, MDSW is coming soon! Hopefully I will be able to find a few local vendors there. 

Venturing back into multiple-WIP land

Thermal is going really, really well. I started this the first day of spring break and finished the body by the end of the week. The sleeves, though, will take a while now that classes have started again.

EDIT: For those makemakemake readers who remember my first Thermal attempt...

... I've gotten a little bit smaller since then and so it has been frogged. However, the hot pink will be put to good use for sure.

Also, in an attempt to have something promised finished ahead of schedule I started the iTV/PG Tips monkey last night in snow monkey colors. This is by far the trickest thing I've put together thus far; the head/face takes a lot of work and shows a lot of very sloppy seaming. I also ran out of yarn! Argh. This guy is bigger than I thought he would be and a little creepy as a dismembered-monkey-head-ghost, but once I overstuff his body, add ears and arms, and finish things off with a pink butt (?) he will be really cute.

PS: The FLS is finished, but I'm still messing with the camera and monitor so I don't look yellow or blue!

the sleeve length conundrum

The body is finished! The buttonhole edge was puckering a bit so I did a single-crochet edging along the button bands and the bottom of the sweater after binding off for continuity's sake.

Now, for the sleeves: with this shirt I rather like the sleeves as they are now, but otherwise I'd prefer long sleeves. I think, with over 400 yards of yarn remaining, that I might as well go long and then frog if it's not good. It was worth frogging once and decreasing one repeat out of the sleeve width (and once you pull the sweater closed the armpit lumps almost disappear!); I don't think I'd mind frogging at this point, either.

Other changes include making buttonholes all the way down, skipping the eyelet increase row, and skipping the 7 stitches in the armpit. I still can't find the person who I'd like to credit these changes to, but I also have more Ravelry favorites to dig through.

I'm also not able to picture what color buttons would look good here, but I'll worry about that later. For now: 1 1/3 more sleeves to go and then I will be victorious.

WIP: February lady sweater

So I've tackled cables and lace and shawls and gloves... what's next on my list?

Fair isle, for sure. My dream is to make a kitschy Norwegian sweater dress, reindeer and snowflakes and all. But that requires lots of yarn and lots of potential tangles and knots, so we move right along (for now) to number two on the to-do list: an article of clothing with sleeves.

I came close with the razor cami, where a combination of widened straps plus my very rounded shoulders sort of gives the illusion of capped sleeves. But I've tried and frogged and tried and frogged and finally, FINALLY, we have the beginnings of something like this:

It's going well so far. I will have to sift through my 275791 ravelry favorites to find the non-swing, also yellow version I am basing this off of later, but for now I am enjoying this whole top-down raglan business. I'm foreseeing a sleeve issue (too big! How will I decrease properly?) and maybe a stretch issue (did I swatch? No...) but I did knit what probably amounts to one sizes or one-and-a-half sizes too small so it should work out. Maybe.

And now, for something a little different (again)

Remember those bears I made? I showed my mom, who in turn became very excited and interested about needle-felting. And then, suddenly, I get an email from my brother (who, while at home, is sometimes our electronics liaison in terms of Skype and email troubleshooting) with the subject "mom made a penguin" and this picture:

:D