I seem to have strawberries on my mind lately. Every other thing I do seems to be of the strawberry theme. I have been wanting to make a strawberry garland for my kitchen for a while. So spring-y and cheerful. And while spring has passed into summer and fall is quickly approaching, I am diligently knitting away on my strawberries. I spun the yarn in my drop spindle class. I had spun once before about 15 years ago, so the yarn and myself still consider myself to be a beginner. I have since learned that Romney wool is much harder to spin than Merino. I embrace the obvious hand spun look. In fact, I am tickled pink to be able to make my own handspun!
So far I've made about 8 berries. I think I have enough wool for 5 or so more, and then I plan on getting more of the same wool in green to crochet them together on a chain vine with leaves atop each berry.
Of course I just had to choose a strawberry for my youngest's plain red dress I found in a thrift store. She wanted a bunny, but I couldn't get inspired to embroider a red bunny. Too much like the scary pink-eyed rabbits my husband used to keep, I suppose.
It took me a while to sketch out just the right one, and then to figure out how to get it onto the dress. Knits are a bit trickier to draw on. I ended up really liking my new (and expensive) marking mechanical pencil. I have since seen one in another store that has 3 different colors (darn it). I'll probably break down and buy one of those, too, mostly because I have been wanting a dependable fabric marking pencil for so long.
I spent an afternoon sitting in the backyard embroidering it.
I am very pleased with it, and my daughter is warming up to it as well.
Here's a close up. I haven't embroidered in I don't know how long. I managed to get it done though with the help of my daughters' Klutz how-to book. (Somebody should get some use out of it.) The white outline is a bit loose, but I figured it out by the green part, and I now feel pretty confident about making French knots! I did question my reasoning and vision after I had make only 5 or so when I realized how many my placement was going to require that I make. However, my stubbornness made me press on!
More later on the garland.
My solution to a child's quintessential plea to a parent: "Can I have a hamster?" I started making these about 3 years ago because my youngest, who was about 3 at the time, wanted a hamster just like her big sister. We have since had a go with multiple rodents, turned our backyard into bit of a pet cemetery, and resorted to these little cuties entirely.
I've made hairy pink ones, fuzzy grey ones, and a couple brown teddy bear hamsters during which time I have been testing my pattern. This I will be coming shortly, I promise, to my Etsy site, birdinanest.
I call it, quite simply, "Realistic Hamster Pattern." It can also be knit on a smaller scale to make a Siberian hamster, which is noted in the pattern.
Knit all in the round with one long circular needle, it's a pretty easy pattern, with a little extra attention given to the short row shaping. Wish me luck. This will be the first thing I put on my Etsy site.
