Hello gnome!

My first beard and it's really cute. Totally worth every bit.  If I went with this beard, I would have been finished yesterday (Monday) for a total of 19 days start to finish.  (That includes about a week of not working on it at all!)

Now, onto the cuteness. This is the beard knitted with Foxy Sable. I thought it would be too dark from looking at it in the skein, but when it's knitted it seems lighter.  The light strands show up more. I like this beard, but am open to others. (So of course, I'm knitting some more to test!)






Typical. Always involved in the photo shoot.


More pictures on my flickr page in my gnome set..

Nearing the finish line...

We have a body!

You can see my center of the body stitch markers. These helped me center the legs and arms and I'm leaving them in so I know where to place the nose.
Next: the beard.

Seaming away

One arm down, one to go. Cute. Thumb was fiddly, but I redid it once and it looks much better. - Also, why did I decide to do the most fiddly one first? It's super cute, but I was not in the mood to seam more after this.  All I wanted to do was sit and look at the cuteness!

Yeah, the color is all off on these.  It was late and I was in my office with flourescent lighting.  Didn't realize how the combo of no sunlight/only flourescent light makes all of the photos so blue.  *Note to self in the future, it is worth it to wait a day to take pictures in the sunlight.  But, I was really excited about the first part all seamed and stuffed!

Gnome ho!

Check out my gnome pieces!

Staycation/Holiday

Last day of my staycation for Christmas/New Year is almost over.  I'm getting ready to head to bed now. I've finished all of the knitting for my first yuletide gnome! Now on to the seaming and stuffing.  I need to take some pictures.  It's cute so far. I also still need to knit the beard. I have a lot of different colors of Foxy and I haven't decided on a color yet.  I'm planning on sewing him up and then seeing what color I think looks best.  I might knit up several and then decide.  Then I'll have a beard or two ready to go for the future. Pics coming soon!  (and I need to figure out a layout, and a header picture!)

FO Pasha the Penguin

My sister's godmother is a really awesome lady. I've gotten to know her and really like her bunches. She's great. For Chirstmas, she goes above and beyond normal decorating and hires people to come and decorate her house. It looks incredible. And it is sprinkled with many many penguins. I had seen (and saved the link) to Pasha the Penguin on knitty.com, just saving it for some day when I would have the opportunity to knit it. I walked in her house while decorations were going up and BLAM! I knew I had found a home for a little knit penguin.

This is the cutest thing ever. I knit it up in a couple days and spent a Saturday while watching football seaming and stuffing. Oh - and one more day knitting a scarf. I just thought the scarf added a little something extra. (Plus, lots of the penguins in her house have scarves, so it went with the overall theme.)

Cute penguin!

Pattern: Pasha the Penguin from Knitty.com
Needles: size 6 - I think I used Clover bamboo DPNs or maybe my Boye interchangeable circs
Yarn: all from Michaels or Joann's -
Lion Brand Wool-Ease Solid, Color: 153, Black
Lion Brand Lion Wool Solid, Color: 187, Yellow
Lion Brand Wool-Ease Solid, Color: white frost - 501, White

Modifications: none really, although I did fold in more of the beak stitches (about half) to make a pointier beak and let those folded in stitches be the stuffing for the beak. Made a scarf out of scrap yarn. (6 stitches wide, as long as I thought it needed to be.)

Instructions are very complete. Great instructions. I did have to look up how to pick up the stitches for the short rows (my first short rows ever). Just wanted to make sure I was doing things correctly!

Top row: Under beak, close up of face
Bottom Row: View without scarf and posing with a kitty (Cassidy) for size comparison

Super Cute. I have to make one for myself! Lots more pictures on my flickr account.

FO Pumpkins

I love these pumpkins! They are too cute. And....you get to felt! I am sooo addicted to felting things! Okay, sure the pattern requires seaming (gasp) and lots of it. Maybe you could knit these in the round and no one would be the wiser, but hey - it's going to be felted! You don't have to make the seams all pretty. Just leave a long tail and whipstitch those panels together. Easy peasy. The end result is so worth it. I went a little pumpkin crazy and made lots of these. I gave three away and I still have some that I need to felt. Now get ready - cute pictures follow! (and many more on my flickr site - here's the link to my pumpkin set)

Pattern: Pumpkins from Knitty.com
Yarn: Orange, Lion Brand Wool Color 133 (which is named pumpkin, appropriately)
Brown, Lion Brand Wool Color 125 (named Cocoa)

The bigger pumpkins are the small sixe in the pattern. The smaller pumpkin I made by only increasing to 11 stitches, then decreasing. I also left off the last five rows. (So I decreased to seven stitches and then bound off.)

Cute!


One of the bigger pumpkins.


Tiny palm-sized pumpkin!

Boring - but helpful - notes:
I felted these for two short cycles on my washing machine. (about 15 minutes) I marked all of the seams with cotton twine before felting by tying a loop at the top of each seam. I let them spin dry in the washer. Go spin cycle, go! Barely stuffed with plactic bags and tied cotton twine to make the grooves.

Sewing on the cap:
This project has such detailed instructions then leaves you to figure out the final finishing all on your own! So, here's how I handled it. I put a little bit of fiberfill inside. Then, I used brown thread and sewed through all of the grooves around and pulled tight. I attached a curly vine if I wanted one in a groove. To attach the top I sewed through the top of the panel, then right by the stem in the cap, then back to the middle of the next panel, then to the cap....and so on, all the way around. Voila! Pumpkin! (If this is not so clear, please let me know and I can try to explain better - maybe with photos or something.)

These are soo adorable. I gave two to my sister when she moved and she wouldn't even stuff them in a bag! She left them sitting out on top of all of her stuff during her drive! I gave another to my Grandma (who used to knit). She said that it was soo cute and better than a real one! (She also kept showing it to my Grandpa: "Look at my pumpkin, isn't it cute?") My brother even thought they were cool. Sooo cute. Cuteness rating - high. Very high. (Rated by all who see them.) If you have the slightest inkling to make these - do!