heyknithappens' Edgar

Happy Saturday everyone! I just wanted to feature the work of a fantastic newer knitter like myself named heyknithappens on Ravelry, who made their very own knitted duck plush from my pattern that I posted a few months back! I love seeing someone else use a pattern I invented, especially when I’m such an amateur at it! You can check out heyknithappens on her blog here: Hey, Knit Happens!

Even more exciting is to find out that she is from my hometown area :) Even though I’m living on what seems like the other side of the world from there now, it’s always a nice surprise to meet others who share the same interests and familiarities of “home.” Small world, huh? Just in case you can’t check heyknithappens out on Ravelry, you can see Edgar, her version of the knitted duck plush, along with all of the other awesome stuff she has knitted on flickr for your convenience. You should definitely check her out… just look at the cute things she has knitted!

The images in this blog post belong to/are copyright to heyknithappens and come from her flickr photo stream :) The first photo is [1] and the second is [2]. Enjoy, and thanks for sharing your work, heyknithappens!

Huug the Hug Monster©

On my way to work the other morning I got an idea in my head for a new knitted plushie pattern I wanted to create. I wanted to name him Huug, and he would be the Hug Monster… so Huug the Hug Monster©! I made a few sketches and started guesstimating stitch counts and then went home and began testing. My final result turned out pretty much how I wanted it; the face is something I want to work more on. The original idea was that Huug has two small beady little eyes and two fairly big buck front teeth sticking out. I’m not so good with embroidery on knitting, so I hope that my future versions of Huug’s face turn out a little better with some tweaking. Anyway, he was originally released here as a fairly popular free pattern, however due to a retail venture I’ve decided to remove it. Sorry :( Huug the character and his knit/crochet pattern was officially and legally copyrighted recently for said venture. I will share more Huugs I make in the future and more backstory about this wonderful creature in the future instead.

Huug the Hug Monster© can / will come in many different colours — I just used orange because this Huug is for my fiance, Lucas. I envision Huugs of every colour of the rainbow and even made from fuzzy and furry yarns to make hairier cousins.

A New Member of the Family

As if we weren’t already busy enough with moving into a brand new house a few weeks back and preparing for our upcoming June wedding in Las Vegas, Lucas and I decided to throw more fun into the mix of life by getting Oliver a little brother. As most of you know, Oliver is our handsome 5 year old border collie/brittany spaniel, which means the newest member of the family is a new puppy.

Lucas and I have wanted a new puppy for a long time. We’d always put it off and said we’d wait until we had a house with lots of room and a backyard. Well now that we have a house with lots of room and a backyard, we started thinking again about adding to our family. We weren’t sure exactly what we wanted, but we knew that we wanted a female (ha!) and that we wanted a small dog. To get some ideas, we visited a pet store in the area to browse. We really liked the look of some miniature schnauzer puppies we saw, and we were also considering miniature dachshunds now that my entire family seems to have one. We started browsing the classified ads and shelters and came across a family on the north side of town who had a litter of miniature schnauzers they were selling. We decided to meet the puppies and see how we felt. I should’ve known that once we got within range of puppies, we’d not be going home empty handed. We’re such suckers.

From the very beginning when we first entertained the idea of getting a new puppy, we’d planned on getting a female. And then we met the little boy of the litter. Not only was he adorable, he was all white! He looked very different from his furry traditional salt ‘n’ pepper coloured sisters. The litter came rushing out to meet us, and we couldn’t take our eyes off of the little male. He melted our hearts and we realized we were going home with a little brother for Oliver instead of a sister like we’d planned. Not everything happens as planned; Oliver was actually chosen under the same circumstances when I picked him out. I went in to the shelter with the intention of picking a female and instead came home with Oliver — mostly for the same reasons we chose the white male schnauzer — his colouring made him unique and just that much cuter. He absolutely stole our hearts.

We brought our new puppy home and introduced him to Oliver, who wasn’t sure what to think at first. It took us a day to finally decide on a name, and we picked Winston. It just seems to fit! As a schnauzer he has a little beard, and our little guy’s beard is white so we decided that only an old man kind of name would work. Oliver wasn’t aggressive towards Winston, but he did try to avoid him for a few days. Thankfully Winston is incredibly laid back and calm, which complements Oliver very nicely. We’ve had Winston for a week now, and Oliver has finally warmed up to his new playmate. Oliver even plays tug-of-war with Winston! And typical of siblings, the younger one follows the older one around and wants to do everything that the older one does. Winston wants to be just like Oliver. (For all of our sakes, we sure hope that Oliver stays unique, lol.) And at first, Oliver didn’t seem to be too keen on having a little shadow, but we’ve noticed over the last day or two that when Oliver realizes that Winston isn’t following him around anymore, he misses him and goes to find out where he is. Oliver is incredibly social with people, but isn’t very social with other dogs so it took him a few days to figure out HOW to play with Winston. Now that they are getting along, we can focus more on helping Oliver to lower his voice when he plays. Oliver is so much bigger and louder than Winston, but he’s definitely improving and figuring out how to use his “indoor voice” when he plays with his little brother. They’re really cute together when they get going!

This blog entry wouldn’t be complete without pictures, and of course, we’ve taken loads of them. With our good digital camera gone, I’ve had to resort to the old icky one. It takes even ickier video clips, but I’ve put together some low res/low quality footage of Oliver and Winston playing together, too. You can see all of the pictures we’ve taken so far of our new family member HERE and check out the videos HERE and HERE. I’ve got a newer video that’s a little better quality (Lucas’ cell phone takes better video than a 6 year old digital camera), but I still need to convert the format and put it all together, so you may want to check out my videos to see when it’s up. The photo page is updated as often as I can tear myself away from my boys to upload, and is constantly changing, so be sure to check back to see more. Wish us luck on housebreaking! ;)

Where Have I Been?

Holy lapse in posting, Batman! I’ve neglected my poor blog for nearly two months now, but that’s because I have nothing newly made to share! With our trip to Indiana for Christmas and our big move later in January, I’ve just not had time. While I’m sure you were all waiting eagerly on the edge of your seat this whole time, dying to know what crafty goodness I’d been cooking up, sadly I’m here to report that my crafting supplies are still in boxes, waiting to be sorted and put away in the new basement. So what’s been going on all this time?

Well, now that I’ve mentioned it… you can guess that a lot of what’s kept me from updating is that Lucas and I moved into a brand new house a little over a week ago. It was not a scheduled event initially, but the increase in break-ins (including our own townhouse) in our old area prompted us to seek out greener pastures. We lucked out and found a gorgeous new house that was just recently built in a newly developed neighbourhood. The house was finished being built a week before Christmas, and thanks to the help of Michelle, Jeff, and Jeremy, we successfully moved in last Saturday. It took two full UHAUL trips and a lot of blood, sweat and tears… but we’re finally mostly settled in. The house is so new that it doesn’t even have grass yet; the builders plan to lay the sod for our yard in the spring. It has hardwood floors throughout the main floor, carpet upstairs, and together the two floors are just over 1400 square feet. That doesn’t include the additional 700 square feet that make up our unfinished basement! We have lots of glorious space — almost more than we know what to do with — and it’s a dream come true. I think Oliver loves the abundance of the big spacious windows the most; his favourite new place to be is either in the front office or lounging lazily on the middle landing of the carpeted staircase so he has the perfect view out the window over the foyer. And it was like the builders had our little family in mind when they put in the tall, skinny window alongside the front door — it’s the perfect width and height for Oliver to greet visitors, framing him perfectly.

So as you can imagine, shortly after getting back home from our Christmas trip to the States we had a lot of work ahead of us as we packed up the old place and made arrangements and worked out the details of the move. Once we got into the new place we had a lot of unpacking to do, and the basement craft area is unfortunately on the back burner until we can get everything else in place and get the basement wired properly for electricity outside of the laundry and freezer hookups. Eventually I will have an amazing craft room to work my magic in, but until there are places to put it all away in an organized fashion, my fabric and yarn stashes will have to wait patiently in their boxes. So don’t be surprised if it’s a little longer between updates for awhile. :(

Now that the move is behind us and we’re settling in, it’s time to focus forward. That includes the Serj Tankian concert coming up in next month — our tickets were Valentine’s Day presents to each other this year. I can’t wait! Serj is one of the lead singers of System of a Down, my favourite band. Lucas treated me to a System of a Down concert last July, and I’m really looking forward to seeing my favourite member of the group perform his new (and absolutely brilliant) solo album live. If you haven’t heard Serj’s solo album, I highly recommend picking it up. His voice is music to my ears! The smaller venue concert at Mac Hall should be fantastic!

It’s also time to focus back on the plans for our upcoming wedding, which have kind of been at a stand-still due to the move. By Christmas we had picked out the chapel in Vegas and fully paid for the package that we wanted, but we now need to make our flight and hotel reservations in the near future. We’re hoping February will bring a great Westjet seat sale, so cross your fingers! Any future details will be put up on our Wedding Website as they are planned.

Hope you had a Happy New Year, and best of luck for a fabulous February!

Christmas Craftin' Complete!

With only a few days to spare before we head back to Indiana for Christmas, I have completed all of my Christmas gift knit projects. YAY me! Now that I don’t have any time sensitive projects with a due date, I can focus finally on attempting that neck warmer for Lucas. As you can see, Oliver decided to help me knit this one for “daddy.” :) We have the most handsome dog on the planet, by the way.

So what Christmas gifts have I finished (since the epic blanket) that I haven’t shown you yet? Here’s the list of recently completed works in progress… which means I can officially take them off of the WIP list. I can’t wait to give these to their recipients on Christmas day!

Tiny Toque Christmas Ornaments. These were so fun to make and turned out so cute. First of all, I love the word “toque” and since it’s more a Canadian word (and not one that my family in Indiana is familiar with at all), I decided to make a bunch of these little toques in Christmas colours, which I then turned into tree ornaments. The tags hanging from them will teach my family members this new fangled word and increase their knowledge about Canada ;)

Reindeer Dishcloths. I made one of these each to give to my two grandmothers. The photo doesn’t do these justice — the reindeer is very subtle, but definitely there! (And unlike the pattern says, they really are reindeer and NOT moose!) I packaged up one cloth with a cute decorative Christmas soap (a snowman soap or a Christmas tree soap) in a tiny little holiday basket. They will make sweet little gifts.

Ducky Washcloth. This one I made for my best friend, Somer. It’s a similar idea to the reindeer dishcloths, but this one is made instead from a super soft satin acrylic yarn for the face instead of a 100% cotton blend. It’s got a rubber duck that is fairly easy to see and less subtle than the reindeer cloths. I plan to package this up with some rubber duck soap that I got for Somer at the Calgary Festival of Crafts a few weekends ago and the knitted duck plush I designed just for her. (below.) Pattern for this washcloth was found here.

My Knitted Duck Plush. I am really proud of this one, probably because it’s my own pattern, and technically the first knitting pattern I’ve ever made and shared with anyone. You can read all about that process here and get the free pattern for yourself :) It’s also been published on Ravelry here. I knitted it to go along with the other ducky items for Somer. I think she’ll like him a lot… I know I like to hug him! :)

Baby Santa Toque. Last on my list was a baby-sized Santa toque to give to my cousin’s new baby that I’ll finally get to meet on Christmas Eve for the first time. This was knitted from a pattern in a great book I borrowed from the local library called Simple Knits for Cherished Babies by Erika Knight. All I did to achieve the Santa look was to start out with white yarn and switch to red for the body instead of knitting all in the same yarn. And then I added a festive white pom-pom for the finishing Christmas-y touch. I can’t wait to see this one on.

So that’s about it! While it’s very satisfying and relieving to have completed my Christmas crafting in time, I’m also feeling a little empty! There are lots of things queued up for me on Ravelry to try out, though, and I’ve got this neck warmer project on the go, so I’ll do my best to keep busy! Perhaps I’ll use my Christmas vacation time to learn crochet… ? Move over, there’s something new for my plate!

I think I’m going to need a bigger plate.

Free Pattern: Knitted Duck Plush

A few weeks ago I attempted to make Lion Brand Yarn’s Pocket Pet Duckling. In the end, I didn’t like the Fun Fur, didn’t like the fact it was a duck without wings, and really really disliked the look of using felt to make the beak and feet… wishing instead that it was truly a fully knitted duck. My solution to a better knitted duck plush? Make my own!

I use the same concept of knitting a square that is folded in half to make a triangle for the duck’s body as inspiration, but that’s where the similarities end. This duck sports fully knitted wings, feet and beak, and sits up on its own instead of laying down. Here’s the pattern!

Materials
Size US 9/5.5mm needles
Bernat Satin Solids yarn in Sunrise yellow
Bernat Satin Solids yarn in Sunset orange
ribbon, tapestry needle, black yarn for eyes or seed beads

If you can cast on, use the plain knit stitch (garter stitch), can knit 2 together (K2T) and bind off, you’re set! Here we go.

Duck Body
* CO 30 sts
* Knit (garter stitch) 50 rows
* BO, leaving a 12 inch tail

You now have a square. Fold it in half so that you form a triangle. Using your lengthy tail and a tapestry needle, stitch up one side of the triangle. Open it up and you’ll see that you now have a cone. You may wish to flip it inside out so that your seam looks neater. Stuff the cone, keeping in mind that the pointed end is going to end up being the head, and the seam goes up the stomach of your duck. At the top of the cone, you’ll have an extra “flap” that you now fold over like a triangle. Sew the edges closed, and you’ve formed the rear end that the duck will sit on. Shape it to “sit” up on its rear like in the photo. Now it’s time to make the other body parts.

Wings & Feet – Make 2 in Yellow and 2 in Orange
* CO 9 sts
* knit 5 rows
* K2T, knit 5, K2T (you have 7 sts left)
* knit 2 rows
* K2T, knit 3, K2T (you have 5 sts left)
* knit 2 rows
* K2T, knit 1, K2T (you have 3 sts left)
* knit 2 rows
* K2T, knit 1 (you have 2 sts left)
* K2T to bind off
Weave in ends. Stitch wings and feet to duck in appropriate places. I positioned the wings so that they were like hands — sewing them on their side so that the pointiest end where I bound off was facing the stomach. I used the bottom seam as a guide and lined up each foot along that seam when I stitched it on.

Beak – Make 1 in Orange
* CO 7 sts
* knit 5 rows
* K2T, knit 3, K2T (you have 5 sts left)
* knit 2 rows
* K2T, knit 1, K2T (you have 3 sts left)
* knit 2 rows
* K2T, knit 1 (you have 2 sts left)
* K2T to bind off
Weave in ends. Stitch beak to duck at the end of the face, making sure the pointy end where you bound off is hanging a bit over the edge of the face. Once you’ve stitched the back of the beak onto the face, fold the pointy end under the “chin” and stitch down, making a more blunt beak.

Tie a ribbon around the duck to clearly define the neck area. You can make eyes either by sewing on black seed beads or embroidering the eyes with black yarn. Voila!

Enjoy the pattern, and if you make any ducks, I’d love to see them! Send them my way to craftblog @ pinktoque.com and I’ll showcase them here :) Remember that the pattern is protected under the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Creative Commons license, and anything made from it may not be used for commercial purposes. You may not make anything from the pattern and sell it or resell/redistribute the pattern in part or in whole.

As you can see from my WIP list, I am almost done with all of my Christmas gift knitting and crafting with one week to go before we leave for Indiana. Check back soon to see a final post before Christmas to see all of the little things I’ve finished lately just in time for the holidays :)

Christmas Craftin'

My Christmas projects are coming along nicely, and there’s been so many little ones that I’ve not been able to keep up post-wise with it all. Here’s a photo to give you an idea of where I am right now. I’m still working on my tiny toque Christmas ornaments for my family members back in Indiana, and I’ve got lots of gluing left to do to finish making all of the Christmas cards I plan to send this year. Admittedly I am sending out less this year than before, but I think that’s because I have better contact with so many people now via Facebook instead.

I am especially fond of the tiny toques. Not only because they’re cute, but because they play a role in my 2nd annual Canadian Christmas tradition. Last year I was unable to go back home to the states for Christmas, so I made my family members a stuffed moose — something that represents Canada — to send in my place for hugging. I’ve decided to extend that, and this year I am making the tiny toque ornaments as my “Canadian item” of the season for family members. Last Christmas they got moose, this Christmas they will expand their vocabulary by learning about the wonderful word ‘toque.’ I plan to attach little vocabulary notecards to each ornament with the definition of a toque and its proper pronunciation and whatnot for fun ;) The big difference this year, though, is that we will be home for Christmas — yay! Lucas and I are really looking forward to our Christmas trip to Indiana in a few weeks.

The Calgary Festival of Crafts last weekend was a blast! There were so many awesome crafty items to browse, and I even picked up a very unique item made here in Alberta… a Christmas tree ornament crafted from recycled computer parts! This is going to make a great gift. And speaking of gifts, I’ve added a few more things to my knitting to do list/works in progress. When I was at the craft fair, I got a really fun rubber-ducky-in-soap that I’d like to package together with a ducky washcloth for Somer. That means I need to make a ducky washcloth, lol. I’d also like to try my hand at making a second (and better) version of the plush knitted duck to go along with that. I still need to block the blanket for Lucas’ mom, but I hope to get that done this weekend. And I learned that my cousin and his wife will be home for Christmas as well, and I’ll finally get to meet their 4 month old son. If I have time, I’d love to whip up a cute baby Santa toque to give him when I meet him. I found a great pattern in Erika Knight’s book, Simple Knits for Cherished Babies that I borrowed from the local library. Wish me luck!

One last note of importance… I finally got my Ravelry beta invite! I was so excited that it was hard to do anything else but dig through the site and see what all I could do. It’s an obsessive compulsive organizer’s dream. I’ve not had enough time to thoroughly comb the site because there’s so much that it seems overwhelming at first, but I have gotten the basics set up and plan to spend more time perusing once my Christmas projects are done. I’d also love to do a more detailed write up on it and my experiences there when I get a chance. For now I need to make some other Ravelry friends — my screen name is pinktoque, so be sure to add me or say hi if you’re also enjoying the beta! More on that to come ;)

Sew Buttons!

Today I decided to set the needles aside and do a little much-needed sewing. I pulled the sewing machine from the depths of the cold, dark basement and dusted it off. I had forgotten how much I love my sewing machine… it had been too long! Not only did I have an order to complete, but I also had been wanting to make myself a new winter-appropriate purse.

The purse is a new design that came to me a few weeks ago — I’d wanted something more roundish, but I really like my hobo-style Brooks bag, so I combined what I liked about those two ideas and came up with a great stripey bag and matching pouch. Lucas and I went into Fabricland yesterday and rummaged through the “Buy 1 Get 3 Free” bin and came out with some winners — namely the yummy striped fabric I used for the outside, and the luscious brown corduroy I used for the liner. They paired together really well, and I dug around in my button stash to find a few that matched to spice up the front. I really love it.

The new purse is just in time to accompany me to the Calgary Festival of Crafts, which is in town this weekend. The girls and I are going out tomorrow and plan to spend the day there. It’s only $5 to get in, and there’s over 200 booths to browse… plus I’ll be there with Michelle, Claire, Kerstin and Megan… what’s better than friends and crafts? I hope to get some good ideas for next year’s Christmas gifts and perhaps pick up a thing or to for my grandparents while I’m there tomorrow. Should be fun!

Also completed today is an order for Susie — some pouches and bags to carry domino holders. They’re colorful and fun to make! I got into a groove and got them all done this afternoon along with the purse. I feel really productive today! I should probably switch gears to work on handmade Christmas cards, but I kinda want to knit a few more of the tiny toque Christmas ornaments I’m making, too. My list is slowly dwindling down — there is a light at the end of the crafting tunnel! I shouldn’t have any troubles getting all of the gift items done before our trip to Indy in a few weeks, but cross your fingers!

A Finished Blanket and a Marriage Proposal

I know it seems that all has been quiet on the blogging front the last few weeks, but I can assure you that real life behind the scenes has been anything but!

This past weekend was especially busy; Lucas and I got engaged on Saturday and then we hosted Thanksgiving on Sunday for a few friends. It was a whirlwind of excitement! We went out into the Canadian Rockies to check out Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park, and Lucas got down on one knee and pulled a ring out of his pocket there along the shore of the lake and proposed. It was perfect and completely unforgettable. You can read all of the details and see photos on our personal blog: lookatusgo!

As you might’ve guessed from the photo, I’ve been working hard on the blanket for Lucas’ mom. I was determined to get it done by a personal deadline I set for myself of December 1. I am proud to announce that as of today the blanket is officially off the needles! It’s only set at 99% finished and still listed as a work in progress, but that’s because I plan to block it this weekend and give it a good stretch. The photo is what it looks like now, pre-blocked. I’ll post an updated picture after this weekend with the final dimensions and pattern. It sure feels good to have completed such a massive project! And I have plenty of time to focus on some other projects now in time for Christmas, such as working out the last minute kinks of the moose dishcloth pattern I’ve designed so I can try it out and make some for my grandmas. I’ve also got to get working on tiny toque ornaments. The list goes on and on…

Since I signed up on November 18, I’ve been patiently awaiting my beta invite to Ravelry. I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am about digging into it. From what I’ve read by those already in the beta along with the virtual tour I took and some reviews I read on various sites, I anticipate a new obsession. If you haven’t already checked out Ravelry, I highly recommend it! Right now there are 4905 people ahead of me and 4113 people behind me in line, all eagerly awaiting their invite.

Alright so there are 25 days until Lucas and I head to Indiana to spend Christmas with my family, and so that means 25 days to get all of my Christmas gift projects done. I’m not sure if that’s enough time, but I’m sure going to try! Expect a flurry of activity now that the big blanket project is finished as I work hard to complete a lot of my smaller projects between now and then!

Halfway There

Thanks to the big sale that’s going on right now at Michaels, I snagged some goodies that I’ve had my eyes on… new circular needles and DPNs that I hope to use when I try my hand at making some socks and toques done in the round. I also picked up some new yarn that was on sale, and Lucas picked out some alpaca yarn for me to make into a neck warmer. And as promised (to myself), I haven’t opened my new goodies to use them yet… not until I’ve finished the blanket for Lucas’ mom, which I’m determined to finish before I turn my attention to any other projects. (As you can see from my WIP list.)

And speaking of the blanket I’m working on for Lucas’ mom… at 135 rows and 20 inches long (without being stretched at all), I’m officially halfway finished with the project. Holy motivation, Batman! It’s taken me just under 2 weeks to get this far, so I am fully confident that I can complete this project before December 1st, my personal goal. In my free time away from the needles I’ve sketched out and planned a pattern of my very own — a raised moose profile dishcloth! I plan to make one each to give to my grandmas for Christmas. The pattern is nearly complete, but like all of my other projects, I won’t be starting on them until the blanket is under my belt. Stay tuned to see those come to life (hopefully soon!) and to get the pattern for yourself… as long as it turns out the way it does in my head ;)

I looked today at some specialized bags and containers that Michaels sells for toting around knitting supplies and works in progress, and I’ve decided (after some encouragement and support from Lucas) that I am going to sew something myself instead. I think a few modifications to my generic tote bag pattern will result in a nice and personalized knitting bag for yours truly. Plus I’d like to make myself a new purse anyway since my summer purse is looking a little out of place now that winter is fast approaching. Chalk up two more projects on my to do list!