Dead Mouse Catnip Toy

Remember that mouse I made in July? Well, some family got two new kitties and I remembered how easy the mouse heads were for that pattern... so I decided to knit four different colors of the mouse heads and stuffed them with stuffing laced with catnip!

Since it was just the heads, I decided to make the eyes X's... hardy har har.

No ears, just a mouse head.

Seriously, this is a fast, easy project for a family member.

I know my kitties loved playing with the bag that I stored the heads in to help keep it fresh.

I made three colors... hoping the kitties like them!

Thoughts?

Tis the season to get crafty, tra la la la la....

Thanksgiving is my favorite time of the year... but Christmas is a close second.  I really like giving people gifts and since I've become crafty I've enjoyed making things for people.  I started making the knit items almost a year in advance as I originally wanted to knit all my friends a scarf.

See? Beautiful green one sided and pink on the other scarf! Way too time consuming.

I eventually scraped that idea as it was too slow, boring, etc.  Eventually, it morphed into making toys that reminded me of certain friends.

I pulled out an older pattern to make for some friends.

As Christmas drew closer, and I ran out of time, I postponed giving people things until their birthdays, etc.  Lazy... I know.

First up - a couple friends of ours thoroughly enjoys Mario Bros and requested I crochet them a Goomba.  However, when they originally asked I didn't know how to crochet but since I acquired a while crochet hook kit back in September I've learned... and surprised them with one.  Again, I found a free pattern on Ravelry.com.  I had to look up a YouTube video on what a Magic Ring was, but that was worth it as it's a really cool skill for crochet.

When making the pattern, I ran into a little problem... I lost count when crocheting one of the feet. So he's a little... lopsided. But it still looks OK (I think) and I did better on the next ones.

Next ones you say? Well, after I made him I realized that some of our other friends would like them too.. so I made a mini army of Goombas...

AAAAHHH RUN AWAAAAAAAY!! I crocheted Domino an army!

Well, the Goombas weren't enough. I asked the hubby what other friends would like a crocheted gift and he asked if there was another Super Mario Bros pattern I could do.  Luckily, Ravelry is FULL of free patterns and I found the 1-Up Mushrooms... which I promptly made several for friends (and us).

They're super cute and easy to make. My phone camera turns the green a funny color.

So I made another one. I still need to work on my crochet skills... all my projects come out different sizes, ugh.

I didn't just crochet two mushrooms... I ended up making about seven of them - either red or green depending on the friend.  Carpal tunnel, anyone?

And once I was SICK of making mushrooms, I moved on to different friend... the one who likes penguins.  For some reason, I couldn't find a decent free pattern for knitting but I did find one in crochet. There were a couple techniques that I used on the star post but were rusty for those one, so YouTube helped with those but overall this was a taxing pattern.  I made some alterations (ex: didn't do the legs portion and didn't make 4 feet as two looked great on the bottom) and then the white part slip was weird.  It worked... but I stitched it on wrong and lost count at one part so it's... off. And I hate googley eyes on crocheted/knit toys so I just did black yarn.

I liked him even with all my changes. But I felt he was missing something...

....So I decided to crochet him a Santa Hat.  I didn't use a pattern for that - getting better!

But enough toys! Remember the Moebius Scarf I made? Well, I made another one for someone else for Christmas and then I made a tiny one for my bro in law since he likes math (I didn't think he'd wear a scarf). It's just small enough to be a desk ornament.

I tried to use the colors of the school. See how tiny it is? It was really hard to do on Size 3 circular needles with only 10in cables. Talk about painful.

But I think it looks pretty cool for a little desk topper. 

I didn't do a lot of sewing this year and I regret that.  Maybe I'll make a table runner next year for friends/family.  Or I'll do something with clay... or Baileys. Oh the choices!

Happy Holidays! I hope you enjoyed my review of patterns =)

One blindingly white mouse

Remember how I learned to knit for a mouse pattern? Well... it dawned on me the other day that I knew everything I needed to know to make the pattern!

Because I'm stubborn I made some changes.  I wanted to make six of them in Christmas colors to make them Jingle mice (and even put bells in them).  So I needed to learn how to stitch in a pattern... or, the easier way, just stitch in the letters.  Once again, YouTube gave me two different videos - one doesn't have audio and the other is out of focus.  Siiiiigh.

However, these things take too long to make six of them.  Also, I'm not a fan of how large they are.  Maybe these will be ornaments with family member's first intials on them?

Side view.  Very stiff little guy.

This shows how large it is and the nice J I stitched on.

As always, Domino isn't impressed. Although, she does want to play with the yarn.

Thoughts?

UPDATE: I've decided to make them all to spell JINGLE. The 'i' came out fat because I was watching Netflix while knitting and got distracted. Whoops. 

Also, I switched the colors to make it more festive when I finish them all. 

UPDATE #2: I finally finished them all! See what it spells? =) I'm proud...

The 'e' isn't the best... but the others are pretty good lookin'!

Knitten Kitten!

I recently bought a pair of US 3 double pointed needles off Amazon for a couple different patterns I bought off Esty.  The main reason I bought them was because one pattern in particular needed 5 needles... which none of the stores around me seemed to have. Sigh. So I caved and bought these beauts... for $10 (ouch).

Anyway, the pattern that I wanted to knit was from Etsy called Telepathic Kitten by Cheezombie.  I forget how much it costs, but it's so creepy/cute looking.  It called for funky yarn which I happened to have a bunch of from a yard sale.  I thought "OH CUTE, FUNKY YARN" - when I should have thought, "OH CRAP, FUNKY YARN. THIS WILL BE HARD TO KNIT." Silly Laura.

See that little puff ball to the left? That's the kitten body. Too freakin' puffy... I've lost count of my stitches so many times. Ugh. 

Also, there was a new element in the pattern called Wrap and Turn... so I headed over to YouTube to figure it out.  I couldn't find a video that showed it in the round, only with straight needles.  Sigh. I also looked at New Stitch A Day's Wrap and Turn tutorial to help me figure it out. The more knowledge, the better, right?

I stuffed it using scraps of old yarn.  I've been knitting so much I had a bunch left over and I didn't want to waste it.

Well, it wasn't easy knitting it because of the yarn... but it also knit together in one piece which was different for me.  What I mean is I knit the body and the head together versus stitching it on later.  It worked well enough... but there was another aspect that didn't make sense to me - at round 40 it stated to use scrap yarn for k12 then removing it to pick up and make those crazy ass eyes.  So, I contacted the person who wrote it to ask her what the heck that meant. SO HELPFUL.  She was pretty awesome about answering my question and I figured it out... slowly. (Later I found this blog post which explained the concept well enough - I used the creator's advice since she did something a bit different but this is good for future reference for other knitting stuff).

You can kind of see the shape of the kitten. The white yarn is the scrap yarn for the eyes.

Can't even see it! Stupid fluffy yarn.

Using the tips Cheezombie gave me and winging it, I was able to make two eyes. Then I made the four legs. At this point, it looked like a deranged llama. 

Domino does not approve of me spending so much time knitting. Silly kitty. Also, as you can see the eyes are buggy. Very buggy.

Ta-da! The finished product.  You can see in the background on the monitor what it's supposed to look like... and it's close. But it still looks like a deranged muppet.

The tail came out well enough... used pipe cleaner like it recommended, but I couldn't find the end because of how fluffy it is.

So badly this thing wants Domino's love.

Domino isn't impressed... still. Sigh.

I think I'm going to try my hand on another one for myself.  This one is a little too... Raven's themed for me ;)

UPDATE: I made one in Eagles colors for myself and tweaked the pattern so it looked less like Beaker from muppets mated with a furby and more like a kitty. Then I made two more... And no matter what it comes out creepy! Ugh. 

 Maybe the collar would help them look more kitty like? Who knows. 

Sonic... the Hedgehog!

Shockingly, Pinterest is fueling my knitting love.  I found an awesome knitting pattern for hedgehogs. Hedgehogs seem to be the latest hipster animal.  First came owls, then foxes, and now.... hedgehogs.  But I've always had a thing for hedgehogs.  Sonic the Hedgehog was my favorite video game as a kid.  My first cat was named Sonic and I really wanted to name Bailey Tails originally (but she's not a Tails so it worked out - eventually I'll have a Tails and Knuckles....).

Also, the hubby got me a stuffed Tails!! He brought it home when I started working on this... fate? Yes, of course.

Let me clear: I am a new knitter, a novice at best. So, while I am critiquing the tutorial, I freely acknowledge that the fault might lie with me as I maybe wasn't ready for it.  

With that being said... The tutorial seemed simple enough but I wasn't a big fan about the make 1 right and make 1 left nonsense.  She had a tutorial linked to how to do it but it wasn't good enough for me.  Plus! She didn't explain how to do it in the round.  I had to practice it a couple times before it came out OKish.   Maybe, just maybe, if I had used a non-slick yarn that would have also made it easier.  But why did things the easy way when I can do it the Laura way? *grumble* So I Googled it and found a better visual of m1r and m1l from New Stitch a Day (love that place!)

I'm not going to lie. I started this project, got around 4 rounds into it, and stared at the tutortial for the next week and a half.  I couldn't get the courage up to try and complete it. I even restarted it a couple times to motivate myself to knit Round 5.  No clue why it bugged me so much, but it did.

The tip of the nose is weird. I don't think I did it like the tutorial wanted.

You can see it better here... weird with the m1l, m1r.

But once I got over my m1r, m1l fear it went ok into the belly (which ALSO had those lovely symbols).  Another thing that isn't written clearly is the last round on the belly to make 5 stitches. I misunderstood it and did something else.  I will give the tutorial credit for having detailed pictures to other knitting techinques that I didn't know (p2tog tbl for example).

 Somehow, I screwed up the final 5 stitches on the belly.

It worked out later with the grey body, but it wasn't easy. Had to add random stitches to make it work.

Now, the body. Ugh. I had all the materials for the project, but there isn't a clear way to get the new needles onto the head/body combo in the tutorial.  I ended up taking a break here and tried reading it multiple times until it made sense.

And then.... it did. A lightbulb went off. (I think too much with these tutorials sometimes).

He's super cute.

The nose still looks funny. No amount of stuffing could fix it. Although, I will admit I should have used more.

You can see that I had a hard time in the beginning attaching the grey to the teal.

Soooo... here's Sonic! I'm going to make a couple more for others =)  I loved the teal and grey combo! (For those that know me, this isn't shocking).

Aren't his ears cute? He looks like an ardvark or anteater. Sigh. I'll pretend it's a hedgehog.

Dominio wasn't sure what to make of him.

"He smells funny."

"Meh, I'm more important than that."

Such a cutie.

Thoughts?

Here Piggy, Piggy, Piggy...

A couple weeks ago I made a flying pig for a co-worker that was really awesome to me and is leaving =(

I never go with traditional colors. Phfft, a pink pig.

I got the tutorial for free from here.  It was my first Double Pointed Needles project (legit project, not practice) and I really loved making this pig (the wings sucked -- but that wasn't the tutorial's fault, it's because I'm not great at SSK).

So I made another one  for a friend's birthday.....

The blue was super slick. Not as easy to knit as the yellow one.

His legs were 2 rows longer than the tutorial (experimenting)... regret doing that.  He looks like he's sliding into home plate.

Still super cute.

And then another....

The eyes are in white, but it's so colorful it's hard to see here.

I did a much better job following the tutorial for the legs.  His are spot on.

His wings suck.  Three pigs later and I'm STILL not good at that part. Hmmph.  

This one was for another friend, but the hubby commandeered it as his own (he really liked the colors). 

I think the yarn color makes him look like a pinata. But as long as he's happy...

Still have two more to make before moving onto another knit pattern!

Sir Hops Alot and Blue Bunny

Since November I've been knitting non-stop.  I blame this pattern.

I found it on Pinterest back in October and thought it was the CUTEST thing ever.  However, when I read the pattern instructions it scared the hell out of me. It might as well have been in Chinese.  So, I taught myself via YouTube channels and friends how to knit.

My most recent adventure was finally taking the leap from scarves to knitting a toy on straight needles.  I found this adorable knit bunny pattern (thank you Pinterest!) and it seemed easy enough for me to make. 

Introducing... Sir Hops Alot!

And Blue Bunny!

I used this tutorial to make Sir Hops Alot and Blue Bunny.  I used a long pair of size 4 straight needles to make Sir Hops Alot, but that ended up hurting my wrist.  So, my Blue Bunny was knit on size 8 circular needles which made it a lot easier.  Highly recommend that (although, I don't recommend buying circular needles with 36" cables. The cables get twisted and it frustrated the crap out of me. Newbie mistake!)

To make the ears, I followed the instructions in the tutorial for decreasing and increasing the stitches, but I used this video as a guideline to make it a different color on each side.

I didn't like how she did the normal ears.  It looked too... ehh. I really wanted to add some flare to it.  Another project I'm working on had me whipstitch another knit swatch to the ears to give it two tones, but I thought was still phfft.  Tried to make it a little "me" I guess.  Plus the faceless bunny look was going to give me nightmares so I added some eyes, nose, and some whiskers.

Also, the same blog posted a new tutorial on an easier bunny... but I haven't made that yet.  It's cute, but I like mine more.