Hippo's pants

Yes that's right folks, I had to make hippo some PANTS! The poor guy was running around all indecent!!! :-)


Again, I made this up as I went along.... I worked from the bottom up, knitting two tubes for the legs and then joining them with a couple increases for the body...I did one short row on the backside too. Then I did a foldover brim for the waist so I could do a drawstring waist (I thought that would look cooler than ribbing - and hippos need to be cool!) Oh and of COURSE a hole for his tail! Can't forget about that!


They were a lot of fun to make and now hippo can feel comfortable in public! ;-)

Hippo in the house!

This is a long overdue post, but I'd like you all to meet Hippo :-)


He joined us not too long after Christmas, because I got the book Itty-Bitty Toys on xmas eve, and knew as soon as I saw the hippo pattern, that it would have to be my first proj! (My hubby is partial to hippos)


I had a ton of fun making him!!!! It really wasn't that hard, I just had to be careful sewing all the pieces together to make sure he didn't lose an arm or anything, hehe!


The ears are super adorable!!! And his big round hands and feet! I can't wait to make another animal from this book :)

Of course, I couldn't stop there! The poor hippo needed some ACCESSORIES! First thing I knew I had to make was a simple garter stitch scarf... with fringe of course!


Hmm what next, well I had some leftover green and tan from the scarf... oh I know! A matching hat to keep his head warm! (with ear holes for his cute hippo ears, duh!)


Put it all together...


One fine lookin' hippo!


Now, I'd love to give you all a "hippo hat" pattern, and I think I took a few scant notes, but I truly made that thing up on the fly and got extremely LUCKY that it fit! I just kept trying it on him and eyeballing where the holes should go for his ears! Glad it worked out and he looks super spiffy!

Up next.... hippo gets his DECENCY!

KAL, anyone?

Guess what! There is a group of us getting organized to knit a February Lady Sweater for ourselves in 2010! Don't you love that sweater? I am so excited. Feel free to follow our progress on the KAL blog:

FLS Knitalong

And if anyone else wants to KAL with us, you are more than welcome! :-)

Haiti

I made a donation, won't you too? Let's help out the people of Haiti in their time of need.

Christmas knitting 09

Happy 2010! Before we look forward to the new year, let me recap my christmas knitting!

First and foremost, I can now reveal my secret project that I've been working on since JUNE.... it is the Estes Vest, and I knit it as a christmas gift for my sister in law!!!!!!


It was quite a project... cables, charts, POCKETS (never made those before!), and more! It was really a lot of fun though and I am very happy with the finished project.




And more importantly, so is Mare!!!! Woot. And it fits her, another plus! Apparently she even liked it enough to wear to her husband's family christmas party the next day... that was so awesome of her!


Next up was gifts for my family. We just had our christmas celebrations the other night since my mom was out of town! First up: I blogged about the "button gloves" I made for my mom earlier, and luckily she was very impressed when I gave them to her!


Also a big hit was the hat I made for my brother! He put it on right away and made comments like he thought it looked like something he'd see at abercrombie or something.... I'll take that as a compliment!!!!


(yes ladies, he's single!)

Finally, my other big project.... my dad's vest!!!!


For all the plain gray stockinette I had to slog through, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out... and also happy I was able to block a few extra inches into the width! :-)


Luckily dad indulged me and tried it on when I gave it to him.... and it fit! YEAH!


Finally, two small projects I whipped up in my "spare knitting time" before xmas.... Yes I actually had some! I know you will all hate me for that. Maybe next year I will be the one sweating it out and knitting into the wee hours of the night on something :-). I made a simple yellow dishcloth for some friends of ours (not anything photo worthy) and then I did some gloves. Simple fingerless ones for my Aunt: (one of my fav patterns: malabrigo mitts)


And lace up "opera gloves" (pattern) for my friend Shawn. I made them shorter than what the pattern specified, but I think they are plenty long enough!


Whew! So that sums up Christmas 09. I am very satisfied with what I got done, and am looking forward to what I can whip up in 2010!!!!