Tag: Rabbie

Inkling turned one on Friday, and I can honestly say I have no idea where the year has gone. I swear time moves faster the older you get!

We had a BBQ for him on Saturday (Hungry Caterpiller themed due to Inkling being nicknamed as such due to his bottomless appetite- he actually gets separated at nursery from the others during meal times as he steals the other kids food!) and it was great – gorgeous weather, tasty food, and great company. Unfortunately, not everyone could make it (to be fair, most had good excuses, like being in Australia, looking at you Rabbie!)

Something that has changed since I was little, is that kids get party bags when they go to someone’s party, and on this note, it was decided that since Inkling was a kid, there needed to be party bags.

But adults don’t need bubble wands and sweeties (ok, they do, but that’s not the point!) and with the Hungry Caterpillar theme…

A caterpillar! Based on the free pattern Easter Egg Toys by Kimberly Chapman.

And for the bag, a cocoon! Based on my own free pattern! Just reduced by a third in size.

And a beautiful butterfly to finish it off! Based on the pattern Common Blue Butterfly by Lesley Stanfield from her book ‘100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet’.

I, umm, did make too many though…oh well! They looked cute strung up with some ivy Felix helped make!

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 42 (5 since last post)
Wool bought – 6
Wool given – 5
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 588

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This is an image heavy post, just to warn you!

So, when we were up visiting Rabbie at Easter, her husband introduced Felix to ‘Find Chaffy’ by James Smart, a sort of incredibly cute and fluffy version of ‘Wheres Wally’. But of course, it didn’t end there, you see, Rabbie had made Chaffy, and four of the nine other Chaffy forms.

Felix fell in love, and decided that she needed her own Chaffy set. Yes. Set. Chaffy and all nine forms!

Classic Chaffy

Classic Chaffy

Panda Chaffy

Cat Clown Chaffy

Ghost Chaffy

Robot Chaffy

Dinosaur Chaffy

Pig Chaffy

Octopus Chaffy

Ninja Chaffy

And lastly, Bear Chaffy!

Based all these on the free pattern Oh Balls! by Marcie Nishioka – with additions and modifications to suit each one.

Here’s a group photo:

But that’s not all, Felix insisted that I also need to finish off Auntie Rabbies set of Chaffys, so that she can play with them when she next visits. So, here’s the five to do just that!

Felixs current favourite game fright now is ‘Find Chaffy’ where you hide them all and give clues as to their locations…

With that, I’ll leave you all there this week! Oh, except for the wool count mind you.

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 37 (1 since last post)
Wool bought – 6
Wool given – 5
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 593 

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Belated Easter post, apologies! I was visiting the family up North and we had an absolute ball (Rabbie documented it over at her blog) but when we got back it was straight in to work and gaming prep and time ran away from me!

I do have two completed knits to show you though from then:

I did indeed make Mr McGregor’s sack, as suggested last post, and it was quite fun putting all the bunnies and the lettuce inside it!

And I also whipped up a Baby Bunny Hat (free pattern by Rebecca Lennox) so that Inkling could join in with the festivities. He is definitely bunny mad and squeals when he sees them!

There’s been no new completed knits really since then!

As I said above, I’ve been preparing another game, this time it’s Achtung Cthulhu! In case you haven’t guessed by now, I really enjoy running games in the Cthulhu universe, and Achtung Cthulhu! is set during WW2 and I’ll say now that it doesn’t disappoint.

Though there have been half a dozen instances of people wanting weapons that don’t actually exist just yet…and we’ve only played about three hours!

Till next week where I should hopefully have more to show you!

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 33 (2 since last post)
Wool bought – 4
Wool given – 5
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 595

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Couldn’t resist that title after making all these:

Yep, that’s another six seatbelt covers! I used the same free pattern as last time: Seat belt snuggles by Chris Behme and the reasoning? Felix complained repeatedly that whenever anyone used the car, they didn’t have a seatbelt cover, and all the seatbelts needed one. After having a few full car loads of people (my car can convert to a seven seater, it’s surprisingly useful) I relented and used up a load of chunky wool scraps, as well as letting Felix loose on the button collection.

However, she also had one special request…

A ‘princess’ seatbelt cover for her best friend, as she needed a special one for her seat in her car! This makes me think of Disney’s Tangled (Rapunzel) for some reason…

Needless to say, I don’t want to knit any more of these any time soon!

So thankfully I have a different, more geeky project on the needles now, but more about that when it’s finished.

In other news, Missy came to visit her cousins! (She also brought her humans Rabbie and Loki) and much fun was had by all! It was a great laugh, lots of adventure and playing games! I will say now though, I was GMing ‘No thank you, Evil’ and as a fairly strict cthulhu GM, it nearly killed me. No death, insanity or destruction! No elder gods to twist mind and reality! No cults to meddle and cause mischief! But, I managed it. Just. Same can’t be said about the players who managed to turn a half hour adventure (if that) into nearly two hours!

Anyhow, enough of that. Been celebrating Chinese New Year this weekend and watched the dragon parade and dancing lions, took part in making paper lanterns and block printing. Felix had an absolute ball, and Inkling…well…he really, really wanted the pom poms on the lions heads…bless, the nice lion let him pet it for a good five minutes…

Alright, enough chatting, I have a load of housework to do, a chocolate cake to eat and some knitting to get cracking on!

Till next week!

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 16 (5 this week)
Wool bought – 4 (It was snowing, and happened to be the first shop I ducked into for shelter, and they were in the clearance bin, calling my name…)
Wool given – 5 (I mentioned to Engel I only had one ball of black DK wool, he brought home four more for me! And I didn’t even ask him to!)
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 612

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Ignore the title. I may be a little giddy and/or sleep deprived!

But! There is a reason for it!

Here’s the Octopus:

Its a wash cloth for Inkling – using the free pattern: Baby Octopus Cloth by Elaine Fitzpatrick. Believe it or not, this pattern and the wool had been picked out before Inkling was born, I just haven’t gotten round to knitting it until now! He’s been eating finger foods and desperately needed something that could scrub all the food off him in the shower!

And now for the pussy:

Free pattern Attachable Rainbow Kitty Ears by Saphy kun. I spotted these on Ravelry a while ago and knew I had to knit Engel a set, particularly for when he’s playing violent computer games and/or doing online gaming with our friends.

They have been used, not sure if it’s because he can’t get them off the headphones (they do have buttons so can be removed) or if he likes having the cat ears on himself…

Also this week, I finally sorted through my wool stash (this occurs every year or so to some extent) this time I’ve segregated it by colour and each ball is bagged with any matching friends of the same kind and dye lot. The lone balls of wool are put together with the other lone balls of wool of that colour group (so they don’t get sad and lonely) and now I can tell at a glance what wool is best for the size of project I’m doing. This will hopefully get me to focus on using up the odds and ends of my stash! And also future yarn purchases – I know what colours I have lots of, and not so much, so hopefully I’ll buy what I need, not what I want!

I don’t believe that either, but I can hope!

Oh, also, whilst I was sorting my wool out, these scampered out:

Yes. More tribbles. A  red subspecies of the pink mutant variant discovered, only two have been captured and sent for further study up North…

Early post this week as my sister is coming to visit and it’s going to be awesome!!! But before the fun and games start, I need to tidy up all the toys everywhere – it’s amazing how much mess two children, three cats and a husband can make in the blink of an eye…

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 11 (2 this week)
Wool bought – 0
Wool given – 5 (I mentioned to Engel I only had one ball of black DK wool, he brought home four more for me! And I didn’t even ask him to!)
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 613

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The knit project for this week is exactly what it says on the blog post title.

Elmer and friends:

Left to right: Generic grey elephant, Wilbur, Elmer and Rosie

I made these based on the free Lion Brand Yarn pattern Sweet Mini Elephant – Rosie is the only one knit as written, but in smaller needles, the rest are worked in multiples of 5 stitches where possible. Oh, and the tallest is just three inches tall! So tiny elephants!

Unlike my previous Elmer’s I would willingly knit these again – which is good as I suspect I’ll be making more as presents!

This set will be making its way up to Scotland to the school my mum works at – like the Hungry caterpillar set and the stubborn goat, they’ll be used as teaching aids with the autistic children she works with.

Knitting aside, I’ve been brushing up on the rules for ‘No Thank you Evil!’ – an RPG aimed at introducing kids as young as 4 into the world of role playing. My sister, her husband and their furbaby Missy are coming to visit and we’re going to give it s trial run before I try playing it with Felix – get all the bugs worked out first!

I think this may be the only game however that, as I read the rules and the setting, I actually want to be a player! There’s just so much scope, you can literally be anything!

Engel has broken the character generation system already. His creation? An incorporeal ghost cat who travels through time with his companion Syphilis who has the ability ’embiggen’ so can turn into a giant raging monster.

After I sighed at him, he grinned and declared that actually, he wanted his character to be Syphilis.

Trying not to kill him, I enquired how he planned to communicate with the other players. His response: With a series of awkward rashes.

I’ll leave it at that for today.

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 9 (2 this week)
Wool bought – 0
Wool given – 1
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 614

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As I hinted last post, I really did knit some chickens!

A story first, my neice is moving house (she’s 12, and leaving the only home she’s known, it’s been a big deal) and to make matters worse, she’s had to rehome nearly all her pet chickens.

So I thought she may like a few knitted ones that could go with her anywhere.

Tiny chickens! So small they fit into an egg box! (I’ve based these guys on Anna Hrachovecs pattern ‘Tiny Chickens’ from her book ‘Teeny Tiny Mochimochi’, though it is available for free on her website…)

The only problem is, they breed. I mean, I only meant to knit six and then there was thirty…And seeing as all of them found homes, I will be knitting more as Felix adores them…

So, I was going to give these to my neice yesterday as I was up in Scotland to visit the family and the awesome Auntie Rabbie had organised an Otter Cuddle Party for Felix (she is obsessed with otters, and asked if she could have one)

The food was amazing, and the kids all went swimming, and there was a magic show (Felix was enthralled) and it was a fantastic day.

However, it occured to me on Friday, about 20 hours before the party, that my neice and nephew wouldn’t be so good sharing the chickens I had knit them. (It was three each, or seeing as I had a small army, I could have given them six each easily enough…But…)

Cue chickens from 7 million years ago! Based very loosely on the chicken pattern (I didn’t have time for anything else) I managed to whip these guys out with half an hour to spare.

Never. Again.

Apart from the fact Felix now wants her own set…

They all went down well though, so I’m pleased!

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 22 (2 since last post)
Wool bought – 0
Wool given – 46
Wool gifted – 16 (I’m working on my wool karma here! Rabbie is making a patchwork baby blanket for the baby to be and I decided to help by purging my wool)

Total – 658 (Almost at the starting total!)

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As mentioned a few weeks ago my little Frankenstein has a very prominent…

Bum. Butt. Derriere. Posterior. Behind. Rump. Choose your word of choice. I managed to finally get him off Felix long enough to snap a photo of his little backside, as well as make him some trousers.

Excuse the bad lighting on this one, the first photo is much truer to his green self!

Barring solving Frankenstein’s nudity issues, I got a big chunk done of the second round of Christmas knitting. The stuff I forgot about but can post, so its not the end of the world. A good while ago I blogged about my nieces love of dolls and the little outfits I made for them. Well, Rabbie, awesome aunt and sister that she is, made my niece and her doll matching dresses for Christmas. I opted to make matching shrugs. Felix asked what I was making, I explained, and there was a full blown tantrum.

Auntie Rae makes her dresses. And pj’s. And cat ponchos. And mummy makes her clothes. After some discussion, it was agreed she would also get a matching dress and shrug, she’s three years old, there’s a time and place to explain she has to share her mummy and aunties crafty skills, Christmas day isn’t going to be it. So, low and behold:

Three matching shrugs. Same pattern as used for the dolls last time. The wool is super soft, and sparkly silver, and as lovely as it was making these, three is my limit! Here’s a close up of the stitch pattern:

So pretty!

Last project to show, is the finished Scotty dogs!

Pattern is McIntosh the Dog by Jean Greenhowe. Done on larger needles and thicker wool to give a larger toy.

Alright, wool count time:

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 113 (4 since last post!)
Wool bought – 53
Wool given – 7

Total – 654

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Is completely and utterly, finally and at long last, completed!

All the sewing and tucking in of ends and finishing touches are done. They’ll get their own post after Christmas so as not to spoil any surprises.

I’ve also finished all my Christmas shopping today! Just in the nick of time as I was rapidly running out of days in November to do it all in! For those who don’t know me, after working in retail for far too many Christmases in a row, back in my student days, and listening to the same ten awful Christmas song covers for anywhere between 8 to 12 hours from the start of December right through to mid January…yeah, I hate it.

Though I may have picked up a few call of Cthuhlu based treats for myself in the black Friday sales…such as the CoC 7th ed investigators hand book, a nice new keeper screen with two new scenarios, a choose your own adventure Cthuhlu scenario and all the Christmas presents for Engel (Including one chosen for him from Felix) so all in all a good haul! Oh, and Felix was able to add to her dice collection, a bright yellow D20 and a shiny red D4. The people in the shop thought she was adorable as she spent a good 20 minutes picking these dice.

Different shop (comics) and she made a complete random snort and laugh out loud. She pointed at the comics and went ‘Spiderman! And Batman! And the Avengers!’

So I pointed to a Donald Duck one and asked ‘whose that?’

To which she responded ‘I don’t know.’

I pointed to Mickey Mouse ‘How about him?’

‘No. Don’t know.’

So I turned to Engel ‘How can she know Spiderman, Batman and the Avengers and not know Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse?’

His response ‘Well I’m doing my job right.’

Cue stranger cracking up…

Anyhow, that’s enough of that! So, now I’ve done my Christmas knitting I have been knitting…a Christmas hat for a doll?

It’s for my neices American Doll again, and based on the same pattern as the winter hat that I did a whole back, just fewer decreases. Oh, and it’s being modelled on Baymax, my giant, cuddly, Baymax! A get well present from my amazing sis, and a very much loved and appreciated one at that! He’s doing a great job as my personal healthcare assistant – rate your pain in a scale of one to ten? Who cares, happiness just hit ten!

He may be getting cuddles right now…

I’ve got a few knitting projects on the go – a pair of Scotty dogs as I’m expecting a new neice (the mums in America these days, so it’s Scottish themed baby gifts to remind her that we’re all rooting for her back here at home) and I just remembered I had another Christmas knit to do, well, two really, ones tiny, though to be fair, I should do a third…

Guess I haven’t quite finished after all! Well all those can be blogged as I go so more interesting for the readers at least!

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 109 (0 since last week, but very close to using one!)
Wool bought – 53
Wool given – 7

Total – 658

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OK, I do have one photo:

I was sent a photo of the doll clothes I made a little while back, actually on the dolls! I was really happy they fit as I was having to blindly follow the patterns measurements as I didn’t have a doll to compare it against.

Pleased with how they look, though it does seem ones dressed for summer and the other winter! May have to make some more…

In other knitting news, I’ve just been pushing on with the Christmas knitting – there’s quite a bit this year so it’s taking a fair bit of my time. Time of which I lost as Felix brought the lurgy into the house, and I just can’t knit whilst feeling nauseous!

Everyone is back to full health again, but it did a number on us all.

Alright, just short post today as really tired! Hopefully I’ll have something more exciting to show next week!

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 106 (0 this week)
Wool bought – 53
Wool given – 7

Total – 661

I suspect Rabbie was right with her comment that the wool count won’t be getting below 600 this year…still have just over two months though!

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