This is a rough prototype for a working knitted clock that I made a long time ago.

The idea was that I would fit the knitting over some kind of box that contained a running clock on the inside, with the shaft and hands poking through a hole in the box and the knitting. For this version, though, I couldn’t find the right box, so I just used a sheet of plastic canvas for the front panel and the base, then stuffed the rest of the clock, and attached the battery-powered clock to the backside of the front canvas with lots of tape.

To prevent the hands from getting caught in the knitting, my dad sanded down these beatutiful cuckoo clock hands to be very thin. The clock works, but the hands did start catching on the dial every once in a while. And changing the battery when it finally dies will be an ordeal.

I still would love to create a series of knitted clocks, maybe for display at a show someday. But I would have to find the perfect box or other structure, and the perfect way to attach the knitting to the structure and the clock to the structure, and I would also have to find a clock with a still longer shaft.

For now, this one has been collecting dust on a shelf. But it’s nice to look at!

Spring just can’t come fast enough, am I right?

Until the temperature stays above 50 degrees for consecutive days, we’ll have to settle for warm thoughts and spring-like images, like this charming Snails and Slugs mobile made by Ravelry user colala.

I want one of these for my bedroom!

You can make your own Snails and Slugs with this free pattern on the Mochimochi Blog.

Kate Jeffery also recently finished an outdoorsy mobile of her own, with cute bugs!

As I mentioned last month, you can get Kate’s dragonfly pattern for free on Ravelry.

Some ideas just won’t leave you alone until you’ve found a way to make them work. I’ve tried making a knitted eighth note before, but didn’t like the results, so recently I tried making a mini sixteenth-note version with sock yarn.

I actually think they’re pretty cute, but the pattern isn’t very much fun, since you have to knit the two notes separately and join them with two I-cords, which are a pain to sew onto both notes. (I also tried picking up the stitches for one side, but that was even less fun than seaming.)

Maybe returning to worsted-weight yarn will help make this a better knit, so I’ll probably give that another try someday. But for now, I want to move on to something else!

Kate Jeffery, aka discosmurf on Ravelry, designed a cute little dragonfly for a bug-themed mobile that she’s making, and she put the pattern up on Ravelry as a free download!