Category: Knitted Things

Sheldon Kits from Knit Picks

Posted on October 8, 2008 by Anna

On Ravelry this week, I spotted an ad for kits to customize your Sheldon (a free pattern by Ruth Homrighaus) that are now available through Knit Picks. It’s just such a clever idea that I had to share.

With the two kits, you can disguise your Sheldon as a variety of animals, including a bumble bee…

or you can give him a variety of occupations, such as “pirate,” with their costumes kit.

I’ve never made a Sheldon myself, but these are very cute and funny.

By the way, the career costumes are designed by Brooke Higgins, but there is no pattern credit for the animals kit on the Knit Picks website, though—anybody know who designed them?

Update: Turns out the animal costumes were designed by Ruth Homrighaus herself. (Thanks, Stefanie!)

Two Boos and a Yahtzee

Posted on October 3, 2008 by Anna

I’m so happy to already see a handful of completed Boos over on Ravelry! Since I released the pattern less than 48 hours ago, I guess that proves just how quick of a knit he is. Super!

Three bats in particular are very special friends, because they were made by three of my awesome test knitters, who were a big help to me in polishing the pattern.

First is this little cutie by Mikkers.

Her Boo loves to commune with colorful flowers. What a romantic…

Kountingsheep used acrylic yarn to make her bat, whom she named Yahtzee!

Isn’t he stylish?

Because she was knitting with acrylic yarn, which behaves differently from wool, Kountingsheep slipped one stitch at each end of the bat’s wings, and she also used an iron to “kill” the acrylic and stop it from rolling. A great tip!

And finally, a bat from Bonney, my mother-in-law! John, my father-in-law, was nice enough to take some artful photos of her adorable Boo.

boo_bonney1

boo_bonney2

Thank you to Mikkers, Kountingsheep, and Bonney! You are all Boo-rific. (And I am in the mood for terrible puns, apparently.)

Couches

Posted on September 15, 2008 by Anna

Remember how I was making a couch? I made two!

couches1

couches2

Of course, I couldn’t resist giving them a few dust bunnies…

couches3

couches4

It was fun using a color pattern for these. Trying to think of other toys to do that with.

These one-of-a-kind couches will be in the “Plush You” show at Double Punch in San Francisco in November. Show info to come later!

Update: Thank you to Kristen for posting on the Plush You blog!

Bright Spark by Kate Jeffery

Posted on September 11, 2008 by Anna

Kate Jeffery (aka Disco Smurf), who knitted up the cute Captain Capacitor I posted here a couple of weeks ago, has now created her own electronics-inspired pattern: Bright Spark the Light Bulb!

Isn’t it super? This is a free pattern available for download through Ravelry. Or, if you don’t have a Ravelry account (why don’t you?), you can also download the pattern here.

Looking forward to seeing more designs from Kate! (Perhaps a compact fluorescent Bright Spark??)

Disco Smurf’s Captain Capacitor

Posted on August 25, 2008 by Anna

I get so excited when I see the first completed toy that someone else has made from one of my patterns. It always seems like a small miracle that a few lines of written instructions can yield a similar but totally unique creation in another’s hands.

Disco Smurf was eager to make a Captain Capacitor for her dad for Father’s Day (it’s coming up soon in Australia, apparently), and she’s already finished!

Love his expressive eyes!

By the way, the pattern for Resisty the Resistor will be coming a bit later, so stay tuned!

Aren’t We Lucky?

Posted on July 27, 2008 by Anna

I had a few great testers help check the pattern for Lucky, and I can’t thank them enough! Two of them shared photos of their finished trees. Let’s take a look.

Tezzcan’s Lucky seems to embody more than one kind of luck: her little birds seem to have made a love connection.

lucky_tezzcan

I love the pretty colors that Oiyi used for her Lucky.

(According to her blog, she used Caron Simply Soft.)

She also had her adorable dog Caesar model Lucky.

Caesar probably had no idea what was up with this strange little toy…

Thank you again to Oiyi and Tezzcan!!

Blue and Yellow

Posted on July 21, 2008 by Anna

I love these two colors together.

blueandyellow

It’s something new I’m working on, something that is made up of a lot of different pieces. Anyone want to venture a guess? I’ll let you know if you’re right, but I might not be posting the finished piece for a little while…

Knitted Knitting Group

Posted on July 12, 2008 by Anna

My friend Audrey (the one who designs jewelry) sent me an interesting photo that seems a perfect followup to the creepy polyfil bag.

natlgeo

The photo is from a 1988 issue of National Geographic, from an feature titled “Wool: Fabric of History.” (I cropped out a flash reflection, but there was also a knitted tea set in the photo.)

Here is the caption that Audrey also passed along:

The cat’s alive, but the rest of Noeline Black’s friends are stuffed. Created by Black and other members of the Fabric Art Company in Wellington, New Zeland, they reflect the humor and ironies of domestic life. Taking yarn from her own leg, the woman at her far right is unraveling herself to make the baby she has always wanted.

It seems as though the Fabric Art Company no longer exists (at least not to the internet), but there are a couple of photos from a 1983 gallery installation they did on the Art New Zealand website.

Thanks Audrey!