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November 25, 2007

Hats and 'Hogs!

I have actually also been knitting a few things myself, though most of them have just ended up logged in Ravelry. My crowning achievement, though, has been the folded brim cloche from Maggie Pace's Felt It!. It's sort of like the side dishes (and dessert) that we brought to my brother's for Thanksgiving: incredibly simple with very impressive results.

The first cloche was made (of course) for my dear, sweet darling Betsy. We knew we wanted to start with a red Savoy that was reminiscent of the red of her Valentine scarf. Unfortunately, there wasn't a complementary red in the Savoy palette, but I think the tan that we ended up with looks lovely, especially with the button we found (at The Yellow House).

Cloche (Side)

The second one is a thank you gift for her mom, who was gracious enough to give us a hand-me-down automobile, thus allowing us to both have jobs. The first attempt at a thank you gift turned out to be a disaster, and I will post a picture of it at some point to serve as a warning for others.

The blue cloche, however, has turned out wonderfully, but we still need to pick out a button for it and finish it off:

Blue Cloche, Pre Felting

As it turns out, the Malabrigo we used felted as nicely (or possibly even more nicely) than the Savoy. The fabric is a bit thicker, but the slight variegation is visible if you look closely.

In the same batch of felting, I tried to churn out one of my fez concepts, based roughly on the top hat I made out of Knit.1, but it also turned out to be a complete disaster. The moral of the story is to always make a smaller, test version. Especially if you know a baby who might need a fez.

"Top Hat" It's a...  uh... what is it?

Ah well. Live and learn.

Last of all, as a big sister gift for Z, I found the one use of novelty yarn that Betsy will reluctantly condone: hedgehogs.

Reclining Hedgehog

With needle felted face ans special arched eyebrow details by Betsy herself.

Hedgehog Face

All is revealed

Even though I'm only teaching 8th grade 2/3 time, I still don't have a lot of time for blogging, especially when most of our blog has been eaten by spambots. I did go through and finally publish the legit comments on the last entry, but I just don't have there wherewithal to search for more. Omar will hopefully be talked into upgrading mt and I hope (readers?) that the spam nets have been improved.
Mrs. Weasley's bag is on (permanent?) hiatus. However, I have started my first socks in years! And am exploring the neato-bullseye afterthought heel with the hole in the gusset dear Liza consequence.
But the real reason I'm here, don't get me wrong, just in case you're not on flickr or ravelry (wtf is wrong with you?)
Secret Cotton Joy Project revealed: Love this yarn!
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A BSG er...BSJ for Michelle's new spawn! Welcome to the world, Lil' Mil!

Also, what a lucky baby- a kitten and a Malabrigo blanket! I made sure to send a jersey Ikea blanket for actual puking on.

CIMG4835

Our kitten is so grown up we now have almost identical black kitties. We like to sing "Black Kitty" to the tune of "Black Betty."
CIMG4825