Owl in a Tree WIP

I need the mama's input on these. I'm pretty sure about them, but not 100%. There will be an owl on the long branch on the bum and the waist is an encased drawstring. I kinda feel like the design should maybe be longer, but at the same time, I really don't want to undo it... I LOVE the colors though. The moon is a silvery baby llama yarn that I picked up and I thought it would make a great moon because it's kinda fuzzy so it looks like it's glowing :). Of course, when I got home from the yarn shop, I remember that I have plenty of silvery alpaca/wool blend that would have developed some fuzz and been very pretty and saved me $8, but hey, you live and learn. Feedback is welcome and invited! Thanks!

UPDATE:

YAY! They're DONE! Sometimes it's just so satisfying to say that. They just need an i-cord and to be blocked. HALLELUJAH!!

Please forgive the crappy phone pics. I'll take better ones once they're blocked.

Halloween Longies and Pumpkin Hat WIP

The longies are done, but I ran out of orange and haven't finished the hat. I'm crossing all my fingers and toes that my local yarn shop has the right color in stock! The hat will eventually have a stem and leaves on it :).

Cityscape WIP, Update

I've been promising this mama pictures of this FOREVER, and somehow I just haven't been able to get with my sister/photographer to get good pictures of it, so here are some crappy pics I took. I so missed out on the photography talent in my family. Hopefully I can get together with my sister later today or tomorrow and get some GOOD pictures of this one! I really really love how it turned out :)

My sister is magnificent. See post above for finished product! :)

Lost in the Woods WIP

These still need all the embroidery work done, but I'm already loving how they're coming out. The pictures aren't good. It's hard to get good lighting late at night, but the blue of these longies is SO PRETTY! And I totally love how the cuffs came out. Hope the mama agrees!

Monster longies WIP

I found this AWESOME random stripe generator. I think I'll have to use it again :). These are baby alpaca... soooooooooooo soft!

I'll post better pics later after they're blocked. Crappy lighting in my living room and it's stormy outside.

Gnome Longies

These have been more fun than anticipated... I guess I'm sort of getting good at this stuff! I totally love how these turned out. I'm starting to really love the stuff I do. It's getting harder and harder to send stuff out!

Grateful Dead Dancing Bear WIP

I'm totally trippin' on these :). Love the colors, love the design, can't wait to finish them!

I *heart* Dyeing Yarn!

Have I said before how much I heart dying yarn? I do. I really do :). It all started when I just couldn't find the right pink for these soakers (and these which I made at the same time for the same person) so I decided to dye some myself. I fell in love with the first strand we pulled out of the dye bath, even though it was totally the wrong color.

We (my sister Suzie and I) learned a lot about dying that first time. First of all, with Cushing's Perfection Dyes a little goes A LONG WAY, even with alpaca which doesn't want to hold the color quite as well as wool.

Also, a salad spinner is indispensable in the process of dyeing wool. Maybe you can get away without one if you're dyeing fabric, but with wool, it's really difficult to keep the yarn from turning into a big ugly mess when you're trying to get the water out without one. I guess we could have used the washing machine on the spin cycle, but that would have involved transporting it to the laundry room and it was already complicated enough dyeing yarn with 4 toddlers tripping us up. Running across the house with dripping wool didn't sound very appealing.

We learned that you get very uneven dyeing if you don't get all of the wool into the dye bath at the same time. Alpaca likes to float on top even when it's been soaking for a half an hour. I got some really uneven color the last time I dyed because when I was putting my alpaca yarn in the dye bath, the tongs got tangled in it and I couldn't get it all plunged all the way in at the same time, so some of it came out quite a bit lighter than the rest. I actually ended up liking the effect, and it wasn't very obvious since it was really just an accent color on these.

Next up, we've GOT to learn to dye our own self-patterning yarn! It's TOO FUN!! I don't wonder at all why there are so many yarn dyers out there :).

And here's the finished product. Just beautiful, if I do say so myself.

More Monsters

Seriously, who would have thought that orange would be so hard to photograph. Curse curse curse, is all I have to say! These monster longies are coming out really cute, and I wanted to send the mom a pic to get approval, but no matter what we do (and we tried for about 2 hours) the orange comes out looking like traffic cone instead of the pretty (GORGEOUS, really, and I don't like orange) kinda muted flame orange that it really is. In real life, these colors are beautiful together. I would dress my kids in it in a heartbeat. I would dress my husband in them. I might even dress myself in them. But on a computer monitor, completely wretched. I'm at a complete loss as to how to show the mom what the color really is. Curse curse curse.

Scrappy Longies

I was very unsure about this project. Not unsure that I could do it of course, but whether it would be cute or not. In fact I wasn't sure I even liked it until I tried it on Princess Addy. Then... well... let's just say I didn't need any more convincing! :)

I have to say that even though I wasn't at all sure it was going to turn out cute, if it was very fun to make! All the different stitches I got to try out, and all the beautiful colors made it something I would really like to offer in my shop.