Updated patterns!

I'm in the process of updating my old patterns, particularly the bibs, to include charts. I'm rewriting some of the directions to make the patterns even easier and including alternative methods for beginning the bibs and for making the ties. Look for these patterns in the sidebar to see which ones have been added. It's a slow process, but eventually, they'll all be there!



Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Little Porker

Thank you for waiting so patiently for me to get my act together and to finally post another animal from Ruthie's Farm.  This time it's the pig.  I had a hard time coming up with a name for this one.  All of my great ideas were already taken.  I was complaining to my good pal, Tunie, that I didn't know what to name the little porker, when she said to name it that!  Duh!
I used Peaches & Creme in Sunburst, but I think it would look good in almost any color.
For the cloth, I used Army Tan.  I love this shade of brown.  It's a pity that they discontinued this yarn.  I know it was bought out by Lily, but it just isn't the same.  Fortunately, I stocked up on a whole bunch of cones before they went out of business.
The pdf files are in the sidebar or you can click here for the bib and here for the cloth.

The aforementioned Tunie knit both the pig and the chicken as hostess gifts for a friend.
Anyone for bacon and eggs?

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Angry Feet

The Angry Mitts were such a big hit with the grandsons, that I decided to take it a "step" further (no pun intended!) and make them some angry socks.  My goal was to knit each of the boys a pair to tuck into their Easter baskets.  This sounded like a good plan at the time, except that the idea didn't occur to me until about two weeks before Easter!
This project turned into a marathon knitting adventure, but as you can see, I managed to get them all done!  The socks use the same premise as the mittens.  You use your favorite, basic top-down sock pattern and then embroider the faces.  They're really simple to make.
Mickey loves the blue bird.  I knit his pair first to try out the concept.  Then I knit the black bird for Jack.
Ugh.  I forgot  how much I hate knitting with black yarn!  I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that this is probably the most difficult bird to make.  It's so hard to see the stitches to do the embroidery.  I had to sit in the sunlight (when there was some.  It's been pretty scarce around here!) to be able to do it.  It was actually a strategic move on my part to knit this pair second.  I knew I couldn't give a pair to one and not the other, so I had to keep going.  Fortunately, the third pair that I knit for Marty were the easiest.
The white yarn was a welcome relief and Marty has much smaller feet!  Of course, I couldn't forget our Babe Ruth and since I discovered that there's also a pink bird, I decided to include her in the fun!
The hard part was having to actually buy pink yarn.  You all know how much I hate pink!  Still, I have to admit that they did come out pretty cute.

I've put the pattern for making the socks in the sidebar.  As I said, it's not really so much of a pattern as it is a recipe for making your own.  You can grab the pdf file there or you can just click here.
I also have updated the Angry Bird mitts pattern by including charts for the black bird and the pink bird.

Now who's to say that you couldn't knit a pair of socks using two different birds?