Snowflakes!!!

I am currently going crazy for Crocheted snowflakes!
My plan is to give some away as ornaments, and turn some into giant snowflake wreaths.
As of tonight, I am up to 36 separate flakes.

My Knitting on TV!!!

I have now reaching the Public Access audience! Even though I've had my knitting on TV before, this time it will actually be credited to ME!
During the Geeks with Issues Battle Against Dystentery, they had my almost-finished Mario Pillow up in the background.

New Flickr Organizing

Ah, I love time off. I am spending Thanksgiving at my mother's house in Massachusetts, and I'm taking this down-time to organize my Flickr.
Originally, I had one Set for "Knitting", and one Set for "Crochet". I have now created a Collection for "Knit and Crochet," in which I have added sets for each of my knitting and crochet projects for categories. Much easier to find what I'm looking for.

“The Battle Against Dysentery II: The Revenge of Cholera!”

Starting Today at noon, the Geeks With Issues will once again be hitting the virtual trail -- Oregon Trail, that is. For 24 hours straight, the Geeks will hunt 8-bit squirrels, ford electronic rivers, and try to avoid cholera, all while raising money for some outstanding charities. And you can be a part of it! Just make a pledge!

Please check out http://www.geekswithissues.com/charity for information about the event, the charities, and how to donate.

To help get people enthused for this event, Tough Love Knitters is participating in a special give-away. The lucky chosen viewer will get a custom-made, knitted, "geek craft" item. This can be anything the winner wants!* A hat, gloves, pillow, Nintendo DS cozy! I will work with the winner to design something he or she will really love.

To get involved, just go to http://www.geekswithissues.com/charity and join the live chat. You can also send an email to tuck@geekswithissues.com, saying you want to be entered.

No pledge necessary to enter (though, of course, we would appreciate it).

Some examples of knitted "geek craft" are below:

NES Controller Tissue Cover

Ninja Turtle Beanie

Character Dolls

Dice Bag

Pac Man Scarf

Please consider donating to "The Battle Against Dysentery"!

* max $30 for raw materials

Knitted Barack Obama

See Knitted Boyfriend for basic doll pattern.

Knitted Boyfriend

Last year, The N, a Nickelodeon channel, created several winter/holiday themed promos featuring knitted objects. Knitted presents, knitted network logos, knitted ninjas throwing snowballs. They approached me to create a Knitted Boyfriend.

The Video of the final spot is here!

Pattern:

I tried to keep track of the pattern as I went, but it got so complicated, I couldn't keep up.

A few notes though:

The yarn was a sport weight, and I used size 4 double-pointed needles.

The basic concept and shape was based on Kimberly Chapman's "Little Dudes", see here:

http://www.kimberlychapman.com/crafts/knit-littledudes.html

I started with the shoes, based on a baby booty pattern, and worked up each let separately in the round. I stopped every few inches to stuff the body with cotton. I joined the legs together around where the crotch would be, and widened it a little.

I added the detailing on the fly and the pockets at this point.

I then switched to the sweater color and worked about 2 or 3 rows in the round.

This was the important part, and where I ultimately lost track of the writing down the patter.

I separated the front of the sweater from the back and sides. Trying to do it in the round caused the argyle sections to tug and bunch. I worked the argyle pattern up the front of the sweater, and separately worked the back and sides of the sweater. I added the pink lines to the argyle, then used an invisible stitch to attach the front and back of the sweater.

Now, the shoulders were really tricky, and I can't quite explain it. I think I sewed up both sides all the way to the top, joined the front of back of the sweater, and decreased.

The arms are made in the round, starting with the hand color and switching to the sweater color. Stuff it along the way. At the top, instead of decreasing it, I sewed each stitch onto the side of the body and shoulder.

Before decreasing down to the neck, make sure to stuff the body.

I decreased and switched to white for the undershirt color, then switched to the skin color. A few rows of the neck, then increase evenly around to make the head. I think I had the stitches across 4 needles, with the face section in the middle of one needled (so it doesn't show any lines or increases), and increased at the end of each needle.

Then for the back of the head, as I was decreasing for the top, I switched to the hair color, so the hair blended in better. Stuff the head as before you close.

I did the eyes and face features after it was closed on the top, but it might be easier to do them before you close.

For the hair, I cut 2-inch lengths of yarn and tied them into the "scalp". When I had filled the head, I wet all the hair and "styled" it (straightened pieces and placed them where I wanted them), and then cut it to the length I wanted.

For more dolls, see later posts for "Barack Obama" and "Michael Phelps".

New Blog!

Hello All!

I have been looking for place to store some of my knitting patterns and updates. I am an avid user of Ravelry.com, but because it's a private site, I can't share any of my custom patterns and projects with non-users. This blog will be a place for my personal patterns, project updates, and awesome knitting things that I have collected!

Enjoy!