Shaun the Sheep

Back in December, I made a birthday gift for a friend overseas who loves sheep. I started with the "Shaun the Sheep DS case" pattern http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shaun-the-sheep-ds-case and changed it up. I added sheep buttons, a flannel sheep lining, and made it a bit bigger so I could fit a crochet book and all sorts of notions inside. Behold, the revamped sheep crochet case:

BTW, the little sheep is a measuring tape. Pull on the tail, and it's the tape. Squeeze the belly, and the tape retracts. Love it!

Test Knitting Sweaters

Yikes! I have NOT been keeping up! It's time for a few catch-up posts about knitting and crochet projects, and then I can get into recipes again. I have a photo-documented calzone recipe, as well as Black Forest Cheesecake and maybe some others coming up.

Back in December, I test knit two sweaters for the designer Svetlana (tweedysheep on Ravelry), based in Moscow, Russia. It's fun getting to work collaboratively on a project across the world, and I'm thankful for Ravelry providing the means to do so efficiently. The first sweater I tested for Svetlana was the Momo Cardigan, in the age 8 size. (Available for sale on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/momo-2) This pattern caught my eye because "momo" means "peach" in Japanese, and I had a pet hamster named "Momo" after Momotarosan, the Little Peach Boy who is a folk story hero. The clever increase in the lace in the yoke intrigued me too, and I signed up to make this sweater without having a recipient in mind at first.

I ended up giving it to a second cousin. The photos aren't the greatest, another cousin took them while I was at work. This sweater was a quick knit, and fun. I used Berroco Vintage yarn, which is really soft and nice to work with. In the first photo you can see the heart shaped buttons I used. They aren't a perfect color match, but how often can you get away with using heart buttons?

While I was still finishing up Momo, Svetlana posted ANOTHER girl's sweater that I fell in love with and just had to test knit too. Since this second one had a due date of December 25th, I thought it would make a nice Christmas present for my cousin's 10 month daughter.
This pattern is Bloomsbury for Kids (both this and Momo have adult versions! I plan on making the adult verion with some lovely alpaca I got at a fiber fest this fall....) and it is also available on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bloomsbury-kids
My cousin, who lives in a warmer part of the country, was quite wonderful about taking lots of photos and sending them to me. Her daughter is ADORABLE with or without the sweater:

I can't wait until I get around to making a my-size one!! I love how the lace goes down the back and the sleeves, I find this construction interesting but easy to learn once you get started!

Playing Santa

I love making gifts. I love kids. I love giving gifts to other people's kids. This Christmas I got to be Santa and made some gifts for two sweet kids, a brother and sister.
First, I found fleece on sale. REALLY on sale. With the help of my cousin, I made fleece blankets. The girl's has owls on one side (matches her bedroom) and butterflies on the other. The boy's has sports balls on one side, and dinosaurs on the other. When he got his blanket, he thought it was a superman cape (!).

I love fleece blankets. I was given one as a gift when I graduated HS, from Fran, a lady who I taught swimming lessons with. I still use mine! It's the green and brown striped blanket on my bed, which is the backdrop for many of these photos.
I also made similarly colored sweaters for these kids. The boy got a sweater vest that should fit him for a few years. I love, love, love sweater vests, and obviously the smaller they are, the cuter they are. His mom loves them too! This was a pattern from DROPS that I modified.

The little girl got the "Little Mary Anning" sweater by Mary Ann Cunningham-Kim, which has a shell pattern on it. I'd originally started this at the end of August, and have been working on it on and off since then. I had to rip back a number of times because I'd missed something in the pattern. I was happy to finish it, and have it turn out well. Additionally, while I thought I was making the 2 yr old size, I was actually working the 5 yr old size, but it fits her now and should for a couple of years. 

More holiday posts and test knits to come after New Years!