WIP Wednesday: Crawling Closer To The Finish

Well I finished the body of my Mohn cardigan and I'm still absolutely loving it :) I haven't seamed the shoulders yet, so it is just pinned to the mannequin because I wanted to see how it was looking and I am super pleased. I think I'll get the fitted look I was going for, which is great. Now I'm working on the button bands and collar before moving onto the sleeves. Over the years I have just preferred to have the sleeves be the final part of a sweater making experience, so that's what I'm going to do.

I love how the texture is looking. People say that it flattens out a bit when you wear it, so I'm curious to see how it looks finished and blocked. We will see. It's still going so fast - seriously this is sport weight and I started it just over 2 weeks ago. Crazy.

Some sewing has actually occurred! It feels a bit like a miracle. This is my Decades of Style New England dress that I cut out back in November. I have worked on it here and there, but not very much in all honesty. To be real with you - my sewing room is an absolute disaster. Normally I can just push things around or move them to a corner pile, etc, but I have so much new stuff from Christmas and whatnot that there is no moving this mess around. I really need to have a drag it all out, get rid of, organize, and put it back session in a big big way, but I just haven't had the time or space elsewhere in my house to do that. So I kind of have to force myself to sew. I always enjoy it once I get going, but the mess is a big imposition. I'm hoping to finish this sometime later this week because I am doing long sleeves and I want to get to wear it while it's still cool outside as much as possible. I realize you can't see much because it's all black, but trust me - it's cute.

And in other news, we have a swallowtail caterpillar! I bought some herbs at a garden center and I always look for caterpillars on the dill plants. We found one and he is growing nicely. I just love watching him crawl around and contort to eat, lol. He is now big enough that I had to put him in a netting enclosure so he doesn't fall on the floor or something. This is not our first experience with hatching butterflies this way, and I am easily just as excited to watch him as my kids, lol. 

FO: A Jingling Butterfly with His Cocoon

Sometimes you see a new pattern and just have to make it up right then :) That was the case with Susan B. Anderson's relatively recent release, Butterfly & Cocoon. The pattern originally came out last October in issue 2 of Making Magazine (the Fauna issue). I adored it then, but I didn't have access to the magazine so I just went about my business. Then at the end of March, Susan was able to release the pattern for individual sale. I thought about it for a few days but inevitably bit the bullet and snagged the pattern only to pick my yarns and cast on within a few days. This was just too cute to wait!

With all the pieces together, it might not be immediately obvious what it is, lol. I just love this snuggly nestled little picture though :) He looks so comfy. Of course there is much more to the pattern when you pull him out...

He's a butterfly! lol And he's adorable. I just can't. I was inspired by the subtle color combinations of the pattern examples, so I hit my stash and this was my favorite selection. I love this soft color combo.

For this project I used all I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby that I had in my stash :) The colors were Antique White, Gray Mist, Ocean, and Light Peach. I've found that while I love this yarn for crocheting, it's not my favorite for knitting. My gauge is snug, so I have a hard time getting this yarn to slide on my needles. Not a problem per se, just a personal preference. I love the color combo though.

I love the shape of this toy - the tail really is great for little baby hands to grasp, plus the wings and antennae make for great things to pop in a little mouth, lol. Hey, I like to be realistic. Since this is such a subdued colored toy I decided to amp up the baby-interest by adding a jingling cat toy in the middle of the body. This was my first time doing that - and I'll confess I was skeptical. I've always worried that the stuffing would get inside the slotted ball and make the bell not able to ring, but it jingles just fine and makes this just that much cuter. I love jingling it, lol.

As usual I really love all the thoughtful details in this pattern. The wings are heart shaped, which just adds to the adorability. The stripes are actually a design included in the pattern and I love this because I would not have thought to make a striped butterfly otherwise and I love it. Also the antennae are really clever - you knit an i-cord, then you increase a bit for the ball, then you wrap the yarn tightly around the shaft a few times to stiffen things up. This really gives a great shape and stability. Also I used 6 mm safety eyes because I thought they looked the best.

His cocoon also has such a fun shape and fits the butterfly perfectly - such a nice touch! I love the ribbing at the neck to keep the top snug, and the garter stitched hood adds interest. It's just the perfect little cocoon.

The cocoon also has a little i-cord loop at the top, making this perfect to hang up. I've had him hanging from a shelf in my sewing room and he;s just so much fun to look at and play with :)

All in all this is just the cutest set. Have I told you that it's cute enough? lol Apparently I don't know what else to say. I'm in cuteness overload. I knitted this guy up while watching my church's bi-annual General Conference, and he was the perfect project to keep my hands occupied so I could focus better on what I was listening to. I highly enjoyed this project, and now I have yet another cute baby toy to file away for when I need it :)

FO Friday: Summer Fun

Well, I had the itch to try something new over Memorial Day weekend. I'd come across  a pattern for crocheted flip flops and knew they'd be the perfect experiment. So here they are:

I used the Flip Flops pattern by Tara Murray of Mamachee. She is a new designer to me and she has such cute designs! Since this was meant to be an experiment, I just fished in my stash of cheap cotton yarn (that I never use!) and chose the two colors that looked the best together. The soles are made from Peaches & Cream Twists in the Limerick colorway and the tops are Lily Sugar's & Cream in the Kiwi colorway. The greens aren't the same (the Limerick is a bit more olive), but I think they look good together. I'm glad I had several skeins on hand of the Limerick though because no joke this took all by 5% worth of 2 skeins just for the bottoms! The yarn is held in double, so it disappears really fast.

I made the size 9-10 and I used one hook larger than the pattern called for since I crochet very tightly. The soles are actually 2 pieces that are sewn together as one. They do fit, but they're just barely long enough. If I was making them for an actual size 10, I think I would need to go up another hook size for the bases (but again, that's just because of my tight stitching, not the pattern). These only took a couple hours to make and the pattern was really well written. It had great pictures to explain everything.

I've just been using them as house shoes since I doubt they're last very long in the real world, and they do their job fairly well :) My only regret is that I went the lazy route and didn't stabilize the soles. The pattern includes instructions on how to attach them to cheapy rubber flip flop soles or to make them cushier/more stable, but those options all required extra materials that I just didn't feel like going upstairs to grab, lol. The problem with not doing anything to stabilize them is that as you're walking they can fold up under themselves. So they kind of drive me nuts, lol,  and I have to pay attention to how I walk in them. I may cut the soles apart and add some foam or some cardboard eventually. 

And I realized that in my crazy month of illness/hectic work schedule, I only just realized that I never fully posted about my pattern testing! I was lucky enough to be asked to test the new Bethany the Butterfly pattern from Adrialys Designs. 

For my Bethany, I decided to make a bi-colored butterfly. I used Red Heart With Love in Violet and Jade for the wings and some old Patons Canadiana in Gray for the body. I also chose to embroider a mouth on mine to make it a little happier :)

I just love these colors together!

I really liked how the wings are made - it's done with a combination of double crochet and single crochet so you get that great shape. One thing I will say is you definitely need to make sure you count out the first 2 rows correctly. I was watching a movie while making my wings and I had to start over 3 times because I'd get to round 3 or 4 and the numbers weren't right. This was totally user error, lol, I just wasn't paying close enough attention. Eventually I realized my mistake and gave it my uninterrupted attention for a few minutes while I started off and they came out great.

Back view

So my own personal butterfly was made with a size H hook, but again that's because I crochet so tight. I would definitely recommend going with the G if you make this to keep everything tight enough to hold in the stuffing. Also, be careful not to over stuff the wings because this can cause the dc section of the wings to separate and show the stuffing. I had to play with it a bit to get the amount just right.

Closer look at wing shaping

I had a few random ideas while making this. I think this pattern would double great as a throw pillow on a girl's bed - imagine a butterfly themed room! And you could make it in any colors you want :) I also think you could easily make your butterfly look more realistic by adding black felt outlines to the wings. I could see that working for a monarch or blue morpho or swallowtail - you name it!

I had a lot of fun making this/testing this pattern and I would highly recommend it for any butterfly lover. Also, my nephew really likes that you can flap the wings :) Incidentally, Adrialys is having a Spring Crochet Along and this pattern is included in the selection. You can get the pattern here and join in the fun.

That's all I've got finished for this week :) Head over to Tami's Amis' Blog to see what lovely things others have made!

Crochet Update: Nina the Butterfly - My First Rattle!

I purchased this pattern a few weeks ago - as soon as it was released - and I've been saving it for something special. Meet Nina the Butterfly!

Isn't she cute?! I was a very quick pattern - I think it took about 2.5 hours all in all. I made her using the Muriel the Butterfly pattern from FreshStitches. Just like all her other patterns, this one is very well written and comes together easily. I used Red Heart With Love yarn in Hawaii Blue for the wings, with Everyday Worsted in black for the body and white for the eyes with a small scrap of yellow for the mouth.

Getting those wings on straight was trickier than I anticipated and I ended up having to unpick them 3 times, but I prevailed and I'm so happy with the results :) The best part is the little surprise she has inside. As I was adding the stuffing before crocheting her closed, I inserted a little something special...

It's a rattle! My husband got me a whole bunch of these inserts for my birthday - they just came a little late. And since she makes noise, here is a video to prove it:

lol I'm sure anyone who happens on my YouTube page must think I'm crazy - all my videos are of amigurumi :) But I had to prove she was a rattle!

Anyway, I love this quick little pattern and I see many more rattles in my future :)