More Hospital Crafting

My sister asked me to make her daughter a hat, like this white one which is now lost. It's simple enough that I tried winging it without a pattern, but as I crocheted along, I realized that it was too flat - more of a doily than a hat. Aw, crap.


But it was easily adjusted, and here's the finished version, with a bit of a brim for turning up.


I knitted my niece this watermelon hat as well.


The husband was given this bible in the hospital. Since we already have bibles at home - and more, ahem, scholarly versions, like the Jerusalem Bible, and a couple of medieval Greek editions from my time at Johns Hopkins - I gutted this one to make a sturdy, removable sleeve for my paperbacks. A coworker once said that the best way to ensure your privacy on the subway or bus was to read a bible, so I figure this will be the comic-book-in-bible trick.


Here is the inside of the gutted book, with new end papers. To make the end papers, take a longish piece of paper, and fold the short sides inward to make flaps. Then fold the long sides outward, to close the tops and bottoms of the side-flaps. Glue the whole thing into the book cover.


And here it is with manga inside, tucked into the side-flaps, ready for public transportation.


My toy-sewing days are over, but I couldn't resist posting these Alan Dart patterns from UK mag Women's Weekly, which I borrowed from the public library.

Crocheted Hamburger

While keeping the spouse company during his long hospital stay, I started knitting some cotton socks for my younger son, but was too sad to work on them. I was afraid that if I continued, I'd never be able to knit another pair without being reminded of this stressful time.


I needed a project that was so light-hearted, that I couldn't possibly associate it with sadness, so I made my niece a crocheted hamburger play set (pattern here).










And since there's nothing else to do while incarcerated at the hospital, I made this cupcake paperweight (original pincushion pattern here) for a coworker who agreed to water my office plants while I'm gone.


He's still in there for at least another week, so I'll be somewhat more productive on the crafting front.

Unplugged

My husband was just admitted to the hospital, and I'll be on vacation starting late next week, so I'm unplugging now - that means no internet access for a while. If you don't already have a Bloglines account, I recommend getting one, or some other RSS reader. That way you don't have to keep coming to this site to check for updates. I wish you all a happy summer.

Bunny Sighting

On Friday evening, a wild rabbit made itself at home on my lawn. It was near the sidewalk munching on clover, and didn't bother to move when people strolled by. This was as close as I could get from the other side, however.


When it got dark, another rabbit appeared and they both settled by the sidewalk, chewing clover. They haven't been spotted since.

I finished the socks, which are fraternal rather than identical twins. I got one pair out of the 50g skein, with about a foot of yarn left. With that kind of leeway, I couldn't risk starting further into the ball just to get the second sock to start at the same striping sequence.


Because I took a picture of his brother, I had to take one of this one too, even though he's sockless (he dislikes wool socks).


I made this tote out of a rice bag (the woven plastic-y kind), but I'm not sure I like it - it's too literal, I think. I'll test drive it and see if the shape is useful enough to keep. If not, I'd hate to waste the bamboo handles on it.

Canadian Care Package

This is for one of my older son's friends, who moved far away. His mother liked the Stashbucks coffee cup (pattern here), and nothing says "Canadian" like donuts (pattern here)...

...especially donuts from Tim Ho's (even if it was bought out more than a decade ago by American chain Wendy's).

Where Do You Get Your Music?

This is an example of the cartoon feature I do for Access, Ontario Library Association's glossy magazine. This one's for the Fall 2006 issue. I drew it after the spouse (who you'll recall just turned 40) wondered why all the "great tunes" were in the sale bin at Mal-wart.

The Niece and Nephew Again

As you may know, one of the reasons I keep a blog is to share pictures with relatives. Here's another set of my little sister's kids.




I'm told he hated the face painting, but loved the results.


She tries to use her brother's scooter as a walker.




A cute hat for a cuter baby.

Barbara Walker, 3T

The boys have grown taller, which means less room in their own beds for them, as they each have extensive stuffed animal collections. I took some of their toys and filled 4 big Rubbermaid bins for storage, and still they have so many left! While shoving plushes into the bins, I came across some old FOs. It's embarrassing how poorly made these are, but I was a beginner back then.


This tiger is from Kath Dalmeny's World of Knitted Toys.



I can't even remember where the bunny pattern is from.

There were 3 big sheep from a Debbie Bliss pattern, not made too badly, but I didn't bother to photograph them. By then I had realized the extent of the packing I'd have to do, and it got me down.

Last evening I went to the stitch 'n' bitch at Lettuce Knit in Kensington market (another blogger has nice pictures of the tiny store here). I hadn't been to that part of town since I lived there as an undergrad, so it was nice to be able to stroll around the University of Toronto campus before heading out to the Yarn Harlot's book signing.

Stephanie looks exactly as she does in her publicity photos, but with a slightly deeper and calmer voice than I imagined. Amy Singer of Knitty was there too - Wednesday is Amy and Stephanie's regular SnB night there. I didn't stay long - just long enough for the Harlot to show up - about 20 minutes. Looks like I missed the yarn piñata. Almost everyone there knew each other, so it was hard not to feel like an outsider. Everyone was nice enough, but personally, I enjoy knitting as a solitary activity, much like reading, so I wasn't sad to leave early.

While at the signing, I picked up Barbara Walker's Third Treasury. Knitters often say that this one is the least useful of the original 3, but I really dig the textured and lace pictures.

I love these cute bats, and am plotting to make a top-down triangular shawl with an all-over version of this motif.


This freaky face sealed the deal for me. I'll never knit it, but it's neat to look at how it's constructed.


This is the famous spider that everyone mentions.


Peace sign,



trees,


turtle.

There's also a five-pronged candelabra, but I neglected to take a photo. It's similar to the one in Melanie Falick's Handknit Holidays - or rather, the one in Handknit Holidays is based on Walker's pattern. I flipped through the Fourth Treasury, but although it had many bias-knit lace panels, nothing struck me as particularly interesting to knit.

Yeeesh!

Yeeesh!

Will the square pillow form fit inside the rectangular pillow cover?

Yes! Knitted fabric is so forgiving.


Here's the back with assorted buttons.


I thought it looked kawaii as it was,


but eventually added arms, albeit much shorter than called for in the Jess Hutchison pattern booklet.

It's the Squarey pillow pattern. I didn't really follow the pattern, which calls for the front and back to be knitted separately or in the round, just copied the idea. The extra length became legs, which are miniature triangular pillows - i.e. fabric squares, stuffed and folded on the bias - inside in the cover. The legs are actually shaped nicer than in this photo - more like in the previous picture.

In other news, it was Dress-Up-As-What-You-Want-to-Be-When-You-Grow-Up day at the kids' school. The boys went as computer programmers, like their father (who doesn't dress nearly as sharply as they do). The younger one used to say that when he grew up, he wanted to be, "an office guy, just like daddy".

More Works in Progress

My employer is hosting Library of Congress Name Authority Control training this week, and one of the attendees is a friend I haven't seen in ages. The bad news is, I learned that I hadn't seen her around because she was gravely ill last year. The good news is, she's around now and seems healthy, although she explained that there's always going to be some ambiguity about her health. The best news is - she's now a knitter (and, envy of envies, she's a spinner too)! Which means that I can make stuff for her, like this crocheted paperweight (yes, another one, also weighted with rocks), and she appreciates the work that went into it.


She commented that she liked the intricate swatches I made in my last post. I laughed, because those are pictures from Barbara Walker's book, not objects made by me. She was reading the blog during the LC training, so that explains the confusion. "Mine will be similar, "I said, "But crappier." For example, this half-swatch of the gingerbread castle:


Still working on the socks. One down, another to go. Here they are with my sock-knitting-bag (actually a tradeshow mini-tote from Vitasoy, courtesy of my older Clinical Dietician sister). It says, "No Moo, Yes Soy", and features a boy with a soy-milk-laden cart, pushing a heifer into a box. Sure, it makes sense.


The children's book was a thrift store find.

And here, another knitting project. I won't say what it is / supposed to be until I post pictures of the FO.