Thursday, January 28

And then it had been two years....


Lookit! Lookit my bunneh!


Obviously it's been quite some time since I've blogged. I won't pretend to have any excuses. I'm lazy. I didn't want to. It takes a fair amount of effort to compose a post. Pictures and oh so witty text. I'm lazy.

I'm working on that though. I have a new camera, am happy with the way life is going, and far more motivation.

The above bunny is one of 3 that got completed during warmer months. This one went to the middle offspring. Yarn look familiar? It might to anyone who has read here in years past. That is handspan I did to make longies for said child. I was rifling through a box looking for something unrelated and pretty soon I was elbow deep in itty bitty baby clothes that hadn't seen the light of day in years. Longies included. I brought them out, washed them, frogged them, and reset the yarn. As it sat there looking at me I had an idea.

It was coming up on summer break for them (meaning they would go spend 6 weeks with their dad) and I knew she wasn't thrilled with the idea. In fact, she was asking not to go. I had been trying to come up with something to send her to help ease her mind a bit, something that could comfort her. Along came this rabbit.

The body is handspun originally worn by her, the belly and tail is some random nonsense I had hanging around, and the heart (put there to remind her I love her, I know....cheesy) is some purple sock yarn. I did stuff it with wool but only because that's what I had on hand. I would have preferred cotton stuffing for washability but in the end, it was a perfect combo. So far, the only thing that needs fixed is an arm end worked its way out. I'll weave it back in once I'm done here.

Lookit! Lookit mah yarn!

And for good measure, some new (ish) handspun. This also was completed when the earth wasn't trying to freeze me to bits. See the green bush? This happens when I'm not cold.

The yarn itself isn't miraculous. It was some leftover felting fiber I had bought when I bought a needle felting kit. I don't like felting or felted items. I don't know why I bought the kit. I ran the colors through the drum carder to create some randomness (I think there were 8 colors total) and then got to spinning. The original plan was to make it a 3-ply (like everything else I do) but a tester of that turned out fairly ugly. The colors lost their brightness and the yarn became even more rough than it already was. I left it as a single in the end. It is semi felted. On purpose. When I leave my yarns as a single, they are usually fairly thin. Some spots are weaker by default of not having the added strength that another ply gives. The buddy system works for yarn too! I recently knit this up into a custom piece. I'll share that later. Part of returning to blogging means making sure my pictures are all in one place. They aren't.

Current WIPS:
Hideaway sweater
Broken Seed Stitch socks
Rainstorm shawl- handspun (not my own)
Basic socks- my own pattern
My mother had me tested- spinning