show-and-tell – Page 5 – The Olive Sparrow

Giddy…

Apr 11, 2011admin_tos

… and humbly said also darn proud…

Challenge: medieval day at my nieces' school

Her wish: to be a jester

Total cost $5

Time: about 1.5 hrs.

Materials used: 2 long-sleeved mens t-shirts, some bells.

Tools: 5-thread serger, scissors, niece on hand to keep trying it on.

Skills needed: not much.. but willingness to try, to cut, to have fun.. and then to giggle like crazy… who would have thought that half a long-sleeved shirt worn on your head sideways could so easily turn into a jesters' hat.. not me..

Puppy-love

Apr 10, 2011admin_tos

Need I say more:

My in-law's puppies. Our last visit with them (the puppies), as they are ALL going to their homes by the end of the week (and not our home…). A wonderful experience for Huxley (and me).

Finally!

Apr 05, 2011admin_tos

Today it happened! I've arrived at a chippy that I'm truly happy with. I also drafted the pattern for him and hope to do the detail photos for the instruction sheet by next week.

But here he is in all his chippy-glory…

I couldn't resist and had to make him a little tiny acorn…

The pattern will be suitable for immediate/advanced knitters/needleworkers I think. Would you be interested in testing my pattern for me? If so, please leave me a comment with your e-mail and in a bout 2 weeks I will e-mail you my instructions for your feedback.

Knitting the "hide" of the chippies is not that difficult. You'll have to be able to cast on, knit, purl, cast on within the knitting, cast off, knit an I-cord. The shape of the chippy becomes apparent through "sculpting" with needle and thread while sewing him together.

When the pattern is finalized, I would like to offer it for free as a pdf file here on the Olive Sparrow Blog. I might also sell an extended instruction sheet that has additional animal instructions on it.

Do you like my final version?

Chippy

Apr 04, 2011admin_tos

The "Hide" from last week has been sewed up and this is the chippy resulting from pattern #2. It's not bad, but I wasn't fully happy with it. I also experimented with the way to add the stripes to the side, but don't think it is successful.

There is also a new cast on my finger with new art – Egyptian inspired me thinks.

Chippy from Pattern #3, as pictured below has an extremely long tail (about 14" long), per Huxley's request and since making hand-made goodies for boys is so much harder, I indulged him.

Why the long tail? It makes "Tail" as he was named better able to fly (i.e. swing the tail and launch), also, the tail can be wrapped around Tail's body, or around Huxley's hand or finger.. so much potential.

I also switched the needle size down and made the front paws a bit smaller than the hind paws – Hubby's idea. The tail is also sewn up-wards, so that Tail can more easily sit on his behind and look more chippy-like. The body is a bit longer too, as chipmunks tend to have longer bodies (hard to see when they are sitting upright).