firecat

I made a toy for my nephew's 3d birthday. Despite his getting a mountain of other gifts, including a doll house and an OLPC computer, he actually played with the puppet a few times without being prompted, which made me happy.

Here's the Ravelry page for those of you who have drunk the Koolaid:
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/firecat/manta-ray

It's based on Manta Ray by Brigitte Read on the roman sock blog.
Size G hook
Yarn: The underside is bulky wool handspun by kiyowaramiyuki. The topside is Plymouth Outback Wool, colorway "Multibright". Both were acquired at yarn swaps.

Pattern modifications:

* I embroidered on eyes rather than sewing on safety eyes (didn't have any safety eyes, and thought it would be safer for a 3 year old)
* I didn't use internal pipecleaners (again, thought they might not be entirely safe for a 3-year-old)
* The crochetwork was kind of open and I thought stuffing would show. So I made it into a handpuppet rather than stuffing. There is a side benefit that it is more interactive this way.
* I attached the two halves with single crochet rather than sewing. (I suck at sewing.)
* I crocheted the mouth piece rather than sewing in a piece of felt. (I suck at sewing.)
( pictures )

This might be my last crochet project, since I discovered while doing it that I'm now faster at knitting than crochet.

I'm on a mailing list called GLBT-knit (at queernet). I asked them for suggestions for plain-color wool yarn raised and produced in the US and Canada and dyed in a variety of colors.

I got many suggestions and also other related suggestions for undyed yarn, non-wool yarn, roving, progressive yarn companies, and web-search sites for local products.

Here's a summary of what list members suggested and what I found on my own. More suggestions welcome.

DYED WOOL YARN

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I put together this soap bag from two practice swatches made from instructions in Module Magic by Ginger Luters et al. The bag is made from two different kinds of worsted weight cotton. The blue cotton is very sturdy and firm, the green cotton is soft and more stretchy. The bag has very long I-cord straps. There is knitted and crocheted edging. It's my own made-up-as-I-went-along pattern. I didn't try to make it pretty or neat.

Next time I will change it as follows: Crocheted strap instead of I-cord, which took forever. Body made in one piece, or two swatches of the same size rather than different sizes. The same edging throughout.
( Read more... )