Et fin

Despite fate's numerous attempts to thwart me, I persevered and finished my monster just in time for my friend's baby shower.  I am pleased to report that he was much admired.

This is Baldwin the Bathroom Monster from The Big Book of Knitted Monsters by Rebecca Danger.   I used Knit Picks Stroll in the colorway Cartoons, and a size 2 needle for a sort of "mini" monster--he was about 5 inches tall.  I "embroidered" his face since he was for a baby--that was quite the adventure.  It took me hours to get  his eyes somewhat even, and to get his "teeth" big enough that it didn't look like a weird mustache.  It has been many years since I embroidered anything, but the crookedness adds a sort of charm.

For future monsters, one thing I need to practice is my whip stitch for limb attachment; mine looked messy.  I also tried to use whip stitch to close up his bottom, but it looked TERRIBLE, so I ended up doing an invisible seam. It's not perfect, but its way better than the horrid whip stitch was!* Looking at it now, I don't think I did it quite right--oh well!

At any rate, I have wanted an excuse to knit one of these guys since I first saw the book, and am glad I finally got the chance.  I'm also super excited to have finally finished a knitted toy--something I've wanted to do since I stumbled upon Little Cotton Rabbits blog several years ago.  More of these guys might have to start popping up in the hands of people I know very soon.

*I have now realized I was doing the whip stitch incorrectly, so that was probably part of my problem.  A seamstress I am not.

Of Monsters and Babies

It will come as no surprise that in the nearly four months since I last posted, I have hardly knit on anything.  I tend to go through my various creative activities in cycles, which is bad for blogging; some months I'm really into cake decorating or baking, some months into nail polish and makeup, and some months really into knitting.  It didn't help that I wasn't feeling particularly inspired by any of my in-progress projects. 

Then last week, it was like the knitting gods decided I need to get my act together.  I started listening to my backlog of knitting podcasts and immediately wanted to buy all the yarn and needles.  A fellow blogger and friend posted Instagram pictures of her Kool-Aid dyed yarn, and I immediately wanted to run to the grocery store for Kool-Aid, and order bare yarn from KnitPicks.  I had a little over a week until a friend's baby shower, and theorized that I could finish a knitted monster toy in time (because I'm crazy).

I decided to use a yarn I've had in my stash FOREVER, because its bright and kid-colored.  This is KnitPicks Stroll in the colorway Cartoons.

I hate it.  I think it looks happy and bright in its little yarn-cake, but knit up I think it looks like a muddy mess.  My friend Sam insists it will still be cute for a baby boy.

My current plan is to finish the monster (who will hopefully be ugly-cute), but then overdye the rest of the skein into something less barf-worthy.  It will give me a chance to practice (for freebies!) this whole food coloring/Kool Aid dyeing thing, as I have a ton of gel colors from my aforementioned cake/cookie decorating adventures.  I like when my hobbies magically intersect.