A Wee Bit o' Luck

DS is going into hospital soon for a wee op on her sinuses and as part of a little parcel of good luck, I sent her a black cat.

rare 'jungle' breed

Yes, well spotted.  Not a live black cat.  Which is probably just as well, as I couldn't guarantee that it would:  

1. walk towards her (good luck to come)
   
2. cross in front of her from left to right (good luck),
   
3. not cross in front of her from right to left (bad luck) or indeed
   
4. cross her path at all.  

No, here you will find another example of the 'Lovable Toy' from Marion Edmund's book 'Last-Minute Knitted Gifts'.  I used the the basic overall body shape, then the rabbit head template and changed the ears from long, floppy bunny ones to triangular feline ones.  I added a little pink nose and whiskers, and cut out some cat's eyes from felt and sewed them on.  And then added the toy equivalent of a Dr Who-length scarf!

winner of the 2009 'first-to-blink-loses' staring contest

The kitty is made from Ice Yarns' Short Eyelash sparkly black yarn and the scarf and whiskers are Grignasco Tango in a charcoal marl colourway.  Yes, I know.  Fun fur.  But it does come in useful sometimes, honest!

Engauging mistakes...

I was determined to have Percy finished for the next time I wrote here, but alas, alack, it is not to be... Unless, of course, I leave my scribblings until next century. I have been waylaid in this task primarily due to the strap taking an unconscionable amount of time to get through. Damn that 1x1 rib... Mind you, this strap has temporarily become my bedtime knitting, and it serves very well as a sedative. I would offer a prize to those who manage to spot all the mistakes, but I suspect I wouldn't have enough money, gifts or cake to give out! Thank the stars that the yarn colouring hides them to an extent!! Huzzah!

BUT - I have two FOs for your delectation... Ya see - not been spending all my spare time playing Command and Conquer, you know!
First up is Q's Bear. He (the bear) is such a sweetie and I know he (the best friend) will love him! It takes me a little longer than the 'advertised' amount of time to make, but still, it is rather a quick knit, all things considering. He's so squishy and soft and huggable and cute and snuggly and... mmmm - I want one for myself!

Made with one ball of Phildar Phil Peluche in the Marmotte colourway - brown with some tinges of dark blue - to the 'Loveable Toys' design in 'Last-Minute Knitted Gifts' by Joelle Hoverson. (Such a lovely book.)
Second up is the wire rosebud, which turned into a rose as I the wire I bought just *cough* happened to be the wrong gauge. Yeah, okay, so I thought gauge 24 was smaller than gauge 28... Now I know! And so do my fingers...
So, I used 24 gauge gold-coloured wire (yes, yes, it was supposed to be 28 gauge) to knit the rose itself and emerald green 28 gauge wire for the leaves. The pattern was from 'Wire Knits' by Heather Kingsley-Heath. And now that I've managed to figure out some of the basics, there are quite a few things in there I'd quite fancy turning my needles to...
Percy, ah - dear, sweet, unfinished Percy... He is nearly complete now, though: I have blocked the shell; lined everything that needs lined; added inside pockets to the lining (have sewing-machine - will make pockets) and knitted up the inner yarn pocket/divider. Now just the 's' word to finish and then I can put it all together... Wheee! Maybe by next post...

Knitting... at least, writing about it...

Considering I started this journal in response to my invitation to join Ravelry (hoorah!) I haven't mentioned anything about knitting except in passing. Shame on me. Well, not that I'm a fabulous knitter - I've only been doing it since June 1996 - but I am very keen, if very basic, knitter. (As I may have mentioned previously, it's all C's fault!) I'll have to write a list somewhere of all my projects so far. (Hoorah - more widget searching...) This list will be heavily weighted towards scarves and baby blankets (such is the lot of the knitting learner, but my 'L' signs are in st st!), but after a spate of making bears and bunnies for non-God-son, non-God-son's brother, oldest friend's youngest, sister's best friend's brand-new addition and myself (hey - they were too cute to give them all away!) I feel ready to tackle something a little trickier. And - hey presto - we arrive at the bag-making stage of the knitter's development! I've just started the famous 'Percy' bag with the most gorgeous purple and green yarn!

Got to show a piccie of the bears and bunnies, though... hold on while I try to figure out the adding pictures in blogs thingy works... I suspect the picture of the Tudor gown earlier may have been a fluke...

Whee - html embedding, no less! (Thank the stars for Picasa!) And there they are - SBF's newest's pink bunny (can't be arsed writing all that out again!), N-G-S's blue bunny, N-G-S's brother's brown teddy and my own pink squeezy, cuddly bunny. Did another brown bear for my OF's youngest and am currently working on another of the same for my BF's birthday because he loved the other one so much! Bless 'im! All of nearly 33, but a wee boy at heart!
I might actually get around to rubbing two sticks together later. I spent so much of yesterday re-doing this page, adding thingies (oops 'widgets') and changing everything and starting all over again (soooooo much fun, although I was starting to annoy myself with my perfectionist search for aesthetically pleasing layouts by the end) that I could only shuffle, embarrassed, past my knitting basket as I went to put the kettle on between lay-out tweaking, promising that I'd come and visit soon.
Honest.