Itty Bitty Bee

Yet another adaptation of the Teeny tiny knitted toys by Little Cotton Rabbits pattern... This time, a wee little bee :)  I started by casting on 13 stitches with the yellow (size 1 needles) and knitting 9 rows in stockinette stitch, and then switching back and forth between the black and yellow yarns (carrying the unused yarn up the side) for 2 rows at at time, ending with the black.  I made black I-cord arms and legs, and antennae, but the wings were a little more tricky.  To get the wing shape, I did this:

Cast on 5 stitches with the yellow

(1) K the first row across

(2) Kfb of first stitch, k across, kfb of last stitch

(3) K across

Repeat rows 2-3 until there are 13 stitches on the needle

(4) K2tg,  k across, k2tg

(5) K2, k2tg, k3, k2tg, K2

(6) K2tg k5 k2tg

(7) K2 k2tg k2

(8) K2tg k k2tg

Bind off the remaining 3 stitches and attach to back of bee body.  Repeat for other wing.

Here is Mr. Bee, in his element :)

I'd love to see a picture if you knit any little Itty Bitty Bees... so please feel free to share!

Itty Bitty Kitty

Knitting up a present for a niece that is a cat lover, so I took the Teeny tiny knitted toys by Little Cotton Rabbits pattern and added some wee little whiskers, and a 3 stitch I-cord for the tail :)

And then there were three!

Little Miss Kitty also needed a little bed set for travel purposes.   I cut a 2 1/4 by 3 1/2 piece of felt for the bottom of the altoid tin, and then sewed a little pillow (2 3/4 by 4 inches, folded) and a little coverlet (2 pieces, 2 3/4 by 3 1/2, sewn together and then turned right sides out and top-stitched).
Hope she likes it :)

Everybody Needs a Buddy

My four year old looked at Itty Bitty Bunny, and said, “Oh dear. He wooks so berry, berry sad…. He needs a fwiend! ‘Cause eberybody needs a buddy!” and thus… itty bitty bear was born. (Knit out of some 100% baby llama fromy my Craftsy Mystery Box that I couldn’t fathom what to do with… he is luxuriously soft!)

He is oh so soft to the touch, and infinitely poseable... I see many more "mini knits" in my future, lol!



Itty Bitty Teeny Weeny Bunny

The 2-at-a-time socks I have going on size 1 needles are going EVER SO SLOWLY,

 and I needed a quick little knit to experience the high of finishing something.... enter "Teeny Tiny Bunny" (FREE on Ravelry and here).  I had some "UN-ravelled yarn" from a recent foray to Goodwill in the cupboard, and it looked like the perfect bunny yarn.

Carrie's Review?  Very quick, and quite satisfying project. I love how the ears turned out (there is a k3tog in there that gives them their little cupped shape).  I also used a slightly nicer method for defining the head from the body (worked great!), as detailed here (scroll halfway down the page).

Here is the finished bunny (he is all of about 3" tall):

I added a tail by making a teeny little pom-pom (yarn wrapped around 2 dpns and then tied in the middle, fluffed and given a haircut with a pair of scissors).

I think one of these would be darling adorning a shower gift or card!

Teeny Tiny Tea Time Slippers

After a couple successful forays into the realm of felting... I am starting to feel a tad braver and decided to take on another project, "Tiny Tea Time Slippers" by Amy Munson.

My only choices for colorful, feltable wool in my stash however were bright orange, or neon blue.... so orange it was!

 This pattern was actually quite satisying.  I weighed my skein of yarn, divided it into two equal hanks, and then wound them both into center pull balls.  This pattern uses a mid-row bindoff to make the strap portion, and I used TechKnitter's tips for starting and ending a bind off in the middle of the row to avoid all of the little gappy portions you can end up with otherwise.  Her tips worked wondrously, and I was very happy with the result. 

Also, I used a circular needle for the "straight needle" portions, just because the flexible cable make it easier to get around the corners.  I made a size large, and they fit my daughter (age 4), with a little room to grow.  After one round in the washing machine (hot, low water with several towels), they felted up nicely and were ready for some embroidery and decorative buttons.  Here is E4 enjoying the finished product!  {E4} "OH!!!!  They are SO, SO, SO, SOOOOOO BERRY BEAUT-EE-FULL!!!"

Carrie's Review?  Try this pattern :)  All of the things that I like to see in a pattern were present (stitch counts, easy to understand directions, clear pictures...).  I think that these will make great Christmas gifts for all of the cousins. 

Birthday Madness

Early August is a crazy time for our family... mainly because 3 out of the 4 kid's birthdays, PLUS our anniversary fall within the span of a week.  This year, the soon to be 11 year old wanted a "Tea Party" themed birthday with her friends, and after a week or so of planning, this is what we came up with!  The menu included:  Chocolate frosted cupcakes, Lemon Scones with Lemon Glaze, World Tea Lemon Cookies, and an assortment of Fruity Herbal Teas (with cream and sugar, of course!)

Wouldn't you know it, though.... the night before the party I went out to the storage area to retrieve the tea cups.... and then I remembered all those episodes of "HOARDERS".... Yep.  That's right... I donated all of those rarely used teacups to Goodwill.  Sooooo.... I had to make an early morning run BACK to Goodwill to purchase teacups (to the tune of $14!!!!).  That's what watching TV will get you, lol!

The party was definitely a hit, though!


I made up several sheets of Fairy Tea Place-Markers to set our tea table, and I thought someone else might be able to use them for their little girl's special day.  Simply print out, add the name, color and fold in half.   (Click the picture to download from dropbox)

Little brother also had a birthday party to attend today, which necessitated a gift for 8 year old cousin.  What to do...... Oh yes!  A drawstring pouch to hold his large collection of die-cast cars (with a couple thrown in for good measure).  I have been getting a lot of use out of this Lined Drawstring Bag tutorial these days!

Hoppity, Hoppity

Browsing Ravelry the other day, I came across this darling little pattern:  Happy Frog by Emily Stoneking.  He just cries out to be knit... doesn't he, lol?

However, now that I have knit some softies using Susan B Anderson's techniques (see previous blog post), I REALLY don't like to make patterns where you have to make each of the different pieces to be seamed together at some later time (Because, let's face it... sometimes later never comes!)

So, first I started with the frog body (which is basically just a squashed round shape), and after stuffing it and tidying up my ends, I picked up the required number of stitches the pattern indicates right on the side of the body where I wanted the arm to be placed (using 2 dpns, which I then transitioned to 1 dpn for the I-cord).  This worked out fabulously, and I think added some strength and stability to the finished frog (which is important in a child's toy!)  I repeated this process with the other arm, and both legs.  The eyballs were a little trickier, just because I wanted them to have a slightly wider base.  For each eyeball, I picked up the correct number of stitches in a triangle shape with three dpns, and this helped make sure that the eyeball didn't end up attached to body in a skinny/floppy sort of way.

I used 15 mm safety eyes, plus a judicious amount of stuffing in each eyeball... and TA-DAH!  A finished froggie!

Frog Fronts:

 Frog Back:

Since Mr. Frog is destined to be a gift (if I can keep him away from K2 and S4 - my code names for some of the little ones), I wanted to dress up his presentation with a project bag (froggie themed, of course).  Using my favorite drawstring bag tutorial, I whipped up this little baby:

For more technical information, you can look on my Ravelry project page, here. 

 

After completing Mr. Frog v.1.0, I decided to knit another one out of some variegated Cascase wool I had leftover from another project.  This time I followed the pattern exactly as written, and knitted each piece to seam after completion.  Thus... Mr. Frog v.2.0 was born!

 

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed these little hoppers as much as I did :).