Hungry, Hungry Hippos

Remember this game?  My boys had it when they were small and now we have it again for the grandkids.  The boys and I play it quite often and always end up laughing and having a good time.  This pattern has been lurking around for awhile.  Truthfully, I had kind of forgot that I did it, but after one of our "game sessions", I thought I should post it. 

I decided that purple would be a good color choice as it works for either boys or girls.  The cloth is done in Peaches & Creme Grape and bib is Dark Grape.

Another wild animal to add to my menagerie.  Soon there will be enough of my designs to do a blanket with just wild animals!  The pdf files are available in the sidebar or by clicking here for the cloth and here for the bib.

Speaking of blankets, I decided to re-knit mine.  This time I hesitate to say that it's going really well especially after I thought that the first time.  However, I'm loving this new yarn and the color.  It's taking me a lot longer to knit it, since I added more squares and since I'm using smaller needles.  I've learned my lesson though, and this time around I'm not going to show any in progress pictures.  Just in case, well, you know. . .

Owlie

I'm not much for glitter or beads or shiny doodads, so I've never added any to my knitting.  However, when I saw these cute socks, I decided the time was right to try it.  Owlie is a free pattern on Ravelry and is just perfect for a bird loving grandson.

This is a well written pattern and includes links for tutorials for adding the beads.  I used the method with the crochet hook and it went really well.  I don't know if I'd like to do it for a ton of beads, but for this project, it was just fine. 















The tricky part was finding the right size beads.  There are quite a few websites that sell them, but the shipping is more than the actual beads.  I was getting really frustrated until I happened upon this website.  They are fast and the shipping is reasonable.  I've purchased cross stitch supplies for my mom from them lots of time. 

 

I used Knit Picks Essential Kettle Dyed in Oak that was in my stash.  I did decide to change the foot and not knit the owls.  I thought the beads would be rather irritating in a shoe and I didn't like look of the owls without beaded eyes, so I just did a few bands of knit and purl.

Jack really seemed to like them, although I do think he was a little disappointed that they weren't parakeets!

On a personal note, "Jenn" if you read this, I tried to answer your email, but it came back as undeliverable.  I'm not sure why your computer rejected your own address, but the answer to your question is "no, I don't have any patterns that are as small as 35 stitches.  Maybe you could just add an extra stitch on each side of your design as part of a border and use a 37 stitch pattern."

Blanket Blues

I know that several of you have been waiting patiently for an update on the baby blanket that I started a couple of months ago for little Ruthie.  I know this because I've heard from quite a few of you.  It pains me to admit that I have royally screwed it up.  I haven't been talking about it, because I'm just so annoyed with myself for being so stupid!  I was sailing right along and thinking I would have it done in plenty of time.  In my mind, it was going to be so cute and special. I bound it off and went to block it and then, to my absolute horror, I discovered that the borders weren't even close to matching!  Now, this may not seem to be a big deal to some of you, but I wanted this to be perfect.  I just couldn't believe what I was seeing.  How could I have messed this up so badly?  I did measure, but apparently not very well. 

I realize that it's not a very good picture either.  I just couldn't capture the true color, but you can clearly see the lousy borders!  Turns out, that I don't like the yarn either! 

It's Plymouth yarn's Encore, a blend of wool and acrylic.  I have knit with this before, but I'm just not thrilled with it.  It is a pretty shade of green, despite what my camera is doing to the color. 


So then, what should I do?  I could just gift it as is.  My daughter-in-law assures me that I'm the only one who would even notice.  This isn't comforting though, as I wanted this to be really special.  I've always been a bit of a perfectionist, so this is really bugging me.  I decided that I also don't like a couple of the designs.  The proportions are just a little "off".  I think I know that I really need to start over.  I found a couple of other yarns that I'm testing to see if I like them better.

Isn't this color horrid?  I bought my new camera just so this wouldn't happen.  I guess when one thing goes bad, everything else follows.  However, you can see two of my new designs here.  The goose, which needs to be scaled down a little, and a new pig design.  That's as close a look at you're going to get for now though, as neither of them are close to being ready for posting!

On a positive note, I wanted to share with you a couple of pictures of blankets that have gone right!  Jamie, who is deadpoet7 on Ravelry, made this little number with six of my patterns:

I don't know what yarn she used, but she took nine of the designs and then sewed them together.  I like the way it reminds me of a quilt.

Cindy, who goes by CindyPsych on Ravelry, knit this pretty blue blanket:

 

She used Lion Brand's Baby First for her yarn and added this adorable border.  See, it is possible to knit a nice border.  Perhaps I should have consulted with Cindy before I began!

Thank you to both Jamie and Cindy for letting me share their pictures.  I guess now I have to decide if I want to start over or not.  Stay tuned.