Sundry's Debut!

I'm pleased to announce that I've completed the very first Sundry the Second Chance Monster!

I've been too spastic to deal with patterns or to be able to make even stitches, which meant it was a perfect day to follow the yarn where it took me, and this is the result!  I'll have to get some better pictures when I have something other than my cell phone to take them with :) The flash bleached out the blue button eyes a bit, but she really is quite colorful! 

I may be able to post an actual pattern for her at some point, but it's tricky because the yarn varies in size, so I basically had to stitch differently in each row to make them even (ish). Here's the basic concept: if you can get a bowling pin sort of shape about 24 stitches around at the wide part of the head, decrease to 15 or so stitches for the neck, and then back up to around 30-35 around for the body.  Keep going until it looks like the "right size" (some of the rows will vary in width, so don't worry about the number.) 

I did the bottom few rows in the back loops only so they would taper, and began to decrease around, also in the back loops only.  *This is important, since it effectively fixes the gaps that are sometimes left between stitch decreases.  Stuff rather gently, since the silk yarn has no give -- it molds very nicely as long as it isn't over-stuffed.  Finish off when the hole at the bottom is quite small by putting a slip stitch across the gap.  Tie off and pull the end of the yarn through the body, pull tightly so that the bottom will sit flat (this won't happen if there's a giant knot).

Hair: Wrap silk yarn several times around the widest part of your palm.  Gather in the center, and sew to the top of the head.  This is tricky since the silk yarn is so dense, I used a yarn needle and 4 strands of embroidery floss.  Wrap around and knot at the bottom first, rather gently, and then make as many stitches as you can up the center part.  Cut the loops so you get single strands of hair.

Arms: Cut three rather long lengths.  Hold one end of them in your teeth, braid.  Tie a knot near ONE end, leave tails for fingers.  Use a large crochet hook to pull the braid through the body, pull to desired length.  Make another knot for the other hand, cut off the braid, leaving tails for fingers. 

Don't worry if it looks lopsided, this design is very mush-friendly and will hold its shape nicely!

:)

Enjoy & feel free to e-mail me/leave comments with any questions!!  These will be on sale at some point to help fund the materials for my donations.

To the beach and back again

We had a great time with our little weekend trip, since my son has been asking to go somewhere we decided to include it as a birthday present.  He's not hard to please trip-wise, and thankfully we managed to find a place to get gluten free pancakes, so all was well.  I'm a bit worn out, but it was well worth it.  He seems to be going through a sort of insecure phase right now, so spending extra time together was good. 

I'm nearly finished with a monkey for donation, and finally broke down and got a yarn swift to help me wind up these twists that sometimes give me trouble with knots.  Thankfully, my better half has a talent with such things, I like to say it's because he was a boy scout, but it's really because he flies kites (he started teaching my son while we were at the beach).  I don't mind winding the yarn by hand, especially the recycled sari silk, since it balls up so nicely.  The colors are so nice, too, I kind of enjoy exploring the different handiwork, colors and textures before they get hidden under layers. 

So much to do, so much bad weather to make me sleep -- but push on we must!  I was at least a little bit productive today.  My son's school project is to make an invention, and he decided to make an insect habitat.  I made him a fuzzy recycled silk caterpillar to use in his model.  Boys and their bugs.  The sari silk was perfect for the purpose though.  The more I work with it the easier it gets to make it do what I want it to (sometimes, hah). 

Just about time for me to get him ready for bed.  Hope everybody had a good holiday weekend!