Cute but irritating / cute and fun

Knitted toys can go either way. I knitted up a couple stuffed animals for my tiny friend Zoe the other day. One was knit from a vintage pattern as published in Vintage Knits for Modern Babies [Ravelry link here],which is a darling book with lovely patterns that have various errors in them. There are no published errata, but I figured out the errors in this one relatively quickly. However, there is no denying it was a bitch to knit. Traditional knitted toys aren't really designed around the pleasure of the knitter.

It is cute though:



I am constitutionally incapable of creating a pompom. By constitutionally incapable, I mean that I begin to scream and rage after the first disastrous attempt and become physically unable to try again. I proved this yet again on this fellow, and then decided to do a sort of woven-over-stuffing tail which worked out all right, if not awesome:

But then there's the other sort of pattern. The kind your fingers itch to knit, the kind that makes knitting pure pleasure. Ysolda creates that kind of toy pattern, and I have made several hedgehogs from her darling "Smith" pattern [Ravelry link here].

I know I'll be making more, too. Crazy fun to knit, and the only sewing is the embroidery at the end. Highly recommended!

Hope you are all enjoying your Memorial Day weekend. I had a great time during the first half of it and have been basically fallen over during the last half, but I have no regrets.

Been gone so long...

Sorry about that. I tore some ab muscle tissue in early March. Resistance to proper diagnosis on the part of my doc led to resistance to strange referrals (I didn't want invasive tests!) on my part, which led to reinjury.. it's a long story. Mostly, though, I've just been in a lot of pain, especially when sitting, and hence not using my laptop much in my spare time (and missing some work and social life, too). I'm still hurting, but having a proper diagnosis and a plan for healing is giving me a skoche of energy to update the blog.

I've missed you.

I've been doing as much knitting as I can, some of it while horizontal. I have several things to show you, but let's start with this because I am wildly in love with it.

It's Helena [Ravelry link], done in two colors of Debbie Bliss Cathay, one of my favorite yarns for knitting for babies because it's cotton/rayon/silk (and sooooo soft and silky), has a lovely sheen, and is MACHINE WASHABLE. Crazy. Anyway, knit for a friend's baby, not yet blocked.

What have you been up to? Please say you're still out there!