Portrait of the Artist as Paddington Bear

I finally finished Little Me! Sewing her clothing wasn't so bad, really, at least not half as bad as I envisioned.  Her little yellow rainboots are felt, and were a pain, but her hoodie is fleece, which was really easy to sew up. (It's fleece. No huge surprise here.)

I ended up not making any changed to Lotus, since I cut her "quills" too short to spike with Elmer's Glue, like W the Puppet Master suggested.  The yarn for her quills is Caron Simply Soft (which, incidentally, makes great pom poms.  Who would have thought?) so I couldn't felt it.  Oh, also of note, I don't actually keep Lotus on a leash, I just didn't want Little Lotus to get lost.

Oh, the title? Something about yellow and blue always makes me think of Paddington Bear.  Do you remember Paddington Bear? Those were some of my favorite stories when I was young. (Image from Google Images)

Anyway, I will be sending her off tomorrow during my lunch, in a package made from a paper bag.  I hope she and Little Lotus have fun in London!

Of Socks and Kittens

Honestly, I am tired of looking at these socks.  I desperately want to finish them.  I told myself I would turn the heel this weekend, and I did, but meeting that goal gives me no satisfaction whatsoever.  I think that the only satisfaction I'll get is when I weave in the ends to these socks and see them on my uncle... preferably as he's walking away.

Of course, I could work on the stealth project that I've been hawing away at, or making little me's dress... GR! There's another deadline for the coming week.  Maybe I can sew her a top and send her off.  I can only hope.

Here are some kitten shots.  Little kitty has been sent to live with a family friend, as she is the most civilized of the wild little kitties.  W decided to give her away because, although she is TO cute, and we have no problem taking care of her, she will only suffer when school starts and we can't give her any attention. I'm not sure how I feel seeing her go, only that I know she'll be so much more happy in her new home than with us come August.

Also, she has this thing.  She likes knitting needles. Not the yarn, no, no yarn, just the needles.  That is just trouble if I ever knew it.  

But in the two weeks that she was with us, she's gone from timid scaredy-cat to prime kitten material.  Also, now you can't feel her ribs so well, which is a good sign I guess.

On with the weekend! (Although it's half over already)

And the winner is...

JerzyDevil!

I left a comment on your blog! E-mail me or send me a message on ravelry you claim your prize.

My... Wednesday... In Pictures?

Yes, there was no Ami Update yesterday because I did this instead.

I drove to Troy, packed W's stuff up, and drove him back to Sidney with a kitten.

Both W and the kitten are now living with me.

That is all.

P.S. - Still time to enter my contest! You have a nice chance of winning :)

P.P.S. - It's HOT.  Even Lotus is cranky, because it's so hot.

Contest: Would you like a Dinosaur?

Today at lunch I heard a tiny knock at my door. I opened it, and didn't see anyone! "Hello?"
 

"Down here!" A gruff voice piped.  I looked down to see a tiny white dinosaur.

"Is Dino here?" He asked, flapping his short arms.  I frowned.

"About that..."

"Because I knew him, from high school, and I saw him on your blog and I wanted to catch up! There aren't a lot of us left, you know, and it's awfully lonely..."

"Yes, I understand... Dino's not here."

The white dinosaur didn't seem to hear me. "... so I thought we could, you know, be buddies, even though -- what?"

I coughed. "Dino went to live with my roommate, she takes care of him now."

The tiny dinosaur flapped his arms. "What!? Dino found another family! I want a family! Will you adopt me?"

"Um, no.  I have a hedgehog, and we don't have cable."

"Gross. I don't want to live with you."

I sighed, and we sat down to drink some ginger ale. "Yeah, I'm not surprised."

The white dinosaur blinked.  "Wait! What about the internet? Can you find me a family on the internet."

"Huh?"
 

"Your blog! You can make a blog post asking if anyone wants to adopt me! I'm soft, washable, and good with kids!"

"Erm... okay?"

"Great! Can I hang out here until Friday?"

"I guess?"

"Awesome!"

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So, uh, this is a contest! My last contest didn't go so well, hopefully this one will have a winner! This dinosaur was supposed to be for someone, but then they decided they "didn't like him"... whatever.  That's fine. He's not my greatest work, but he's huggable and nicely shaped.  He's made out of Caron Simply Soft, and his arms are kind stubby and his legs are set pretty far on his body, which is probably why he can't stand like Dino.

To enter, just leave a comment! At around 5PM on Friday, I'm going to use a random number generator and there's the winner!

Golden Wonder

So, I was digging through my stash and I found a skein of Lion Brand Classic in yellow! Frablous day! That means, of course, that Little Me got some nice yellow hair! Also, combined with my white CSS, this yellow can make....

Hehe, it's another Pokemon (Jirachi) and Kuro-chan from Card Captor Sakkura.

Anyway, here's Little Me's progress.  I nixed the glasses, because I thought that my embroidery was wonky, and I'm much happier with her face now.  I still need to make clothes for her - I've done one rain boot, but sewing felt does NOT interest me in the slightest, so, that part was pretty hard.  I'm loathing the rest of her clothes. I wish I could just send her naked, maybe with some ivy leaves to cover her up, but I already did pants! Win some, loose some.

I really wanted to make a little Lotus to go with Little Me to London, you know, so she won't be lonely in the package.  My result was pretty irksome.  I showed it to the original, and was met with scorn.

First step: cautiously sniff.

Second step: Give the "WTF" look.

Third step: Be interested in something else, over there, yes, that... thing...

But I know that this is what happens whenever I show anything to Lotus, so I'm not too hurt.  She did the same thing with her green jingly cat ball, and every night I hear it jingling as she plays with it.  But if humans are watching, she hates it.  It's one of the mysteries of hedgie ownership, I guess.

Anyway, hopefully the next time you see that monstrosity I will have followed the advice of dear W, master of construction, and it will look more like a hedgehog than something Jim Henson has nightmares about.

Well hello there, little version of me...

Yes! My tiny self is laid out on the crafting table, and she has pants.  I'm basically following the Stitch London pattern that I mentioned last week, but with a few changes.  

(1) My neck is considerably shorter, so that the head won't flop around.

(2) My legs are also shorter, 13 rows instead of 20 because, well, I am short.  The 20-row leg didn't seem right to me.  We need to be true to life here!  Also, I decided to pick the legs up at the body instad of sewing them on.

That's really all the difference.  I'm beginning to wonder if Patons Natural was a good choice - although, in retrospect, it really wasn't a choice, because I'm SUPPOSED to be using all stash yarn on this.  Don't know what I'm going to do when I get to the hair though, since really, I don't have any yellow yarn (that I know of.)

Consider yourself updated! See you tomorrow for the weekly 'rumi.