Kleas

two knit bunnies

These are the two bunnies (now finished) I posted about earlier.  I gave them to my boys on easter morning.

As you can see I felted one much better than the other...I think it's all in the type of soap I used.  Using a soap with more detergent in it always seems to felt up better than my all natural dish soap.

I love their lanky limbs.

As the pattern is not really very specific on number of stitches, each bunny will be different (unless I choose to actually count and document how many I am knitting).  

I crocheted a little scarf for each bunny making it in the favorite color of each boy.  Julen loves red, red, red while his older brother loves lemongrass.  

They are such sweet little bunnies.

(Thank you Louise and Natasha for reminding me to show them finished!)

spring break

at the farm.

Farm life has such a draw.  The slowing down of life, so much time outdoors, the freedom the boys feel to just run and run and run.  It was beautiful and relaxing and it's always an adjustment to come home....back to city life.  *sigh*

While in Wisconsin....

...I found some beautiful yarn I hope to knit some dolls from.

Hand dyed and hand spun in such beautiful colors.  Bought at Ewetopia.

...I finished up my buttons for the feeling stitchy button swap.

...did a little spring-y cross-stitch.

(free pattern found here)

...and knit these sweet little lambs

(free pattern found here at Living Crafts)

I knit mine with some soft and fuzzy thrifted yarn so don't know too much about it.  It is very fine though, so I knit them on #3 and #1 sized needles.  Because, well, if you've been reading here lately, you know I have a thing about creating small creatures that fit in the palm of my hand.

Now on to easter plans.  We're having friends over on Sunday and the boys so I will be dyeing eggs later today for the table.  I'm just so thrilled to see that the wheat berries we planted in thrift store baskets at the preschool last week are in full bloom and should look lovely as a centerpiece.

 April first and our high today is expected to be 77 degrees...no foolin'.
   

  

in the palm of my hand

I really do like working small.  The tiny stitches, the itty-bitty features on a new little hand work piece just makes me so happy.  I made another one of these little guys for a friends' birthday.

 

Can you blame me?  This is about the sweetest seal.

This cute little elephant went off to Vero of little elephants for a swap we did in February.  How could I refuse?

I don't know whose pattern this is.  I found it searching "elephant pattern" in google images. 

Then I made this little duck

the pattern can be found at Puchi Collective.

Finally, using up some of the tiniest scraps of wool left over from our ornament making at the preschool I created a little winter scene inspired by the crazy amount of snow we had this year.

 

This is so small, I hope you can see what it is.  I stitched a penny in the base to give it a little weight.  It is just a tad larger than the coin.

Also, a big thank you to Sarah for spending the day with us yesterday.  Sarah always fills our lives with so much light that there is a little withdrawal after we part...Julen keeps singing the "Sarah song...."

 She surprised me with this sweet doll that she made...

...only Julen thinks it's his.

sock snowmen

Here's what we made at the preschool last week.

 

Sock snowmen.  Or as the kids called them...snow girls and boys.

This was a great project for the three, four and five year olds we have at the school.  Some basic stitching was required, but with help they were all able to make one.  Here's what we did.

Supplies needed.  Child sized socks (ours came from Target), wool stuffing, beads for eyes and nose, dragon tears (glass beads) to add weight to the snowman, yarn and thread. 

 

Step one:  cut off top of sock to use as hat.

 

Step two: stuff sock with wool and create a neck by stitching a running stitch about one-third of the way down from the top (or toe) of the sock.

 

Step three:  have the child pick out beads for eyes and nose and help stitch them on.

 

Step four:  Some of the kids were able to finger knit a scarf, but for most of them, I crocheted a simple scarf while the children made a pom pom for the hat.  They all really loved wrapping the yarn for the ball and trimming it down.  A wool fabric scrap would work just as well for a scarf.

 

Step five:  Add the dragon tears to the bottom of the snowman.  This is to give it weight to help it stand upright.  The children all love the magical part of making a wish while placing each glass stone into the base.

 

Step six:  Fold the top of the sock down and hold the sides together while the child stitches it closed.

 

Step seven:  Gather the top part of the sock that was cut off in step one and hold the sides together while the child stitches it up.  This will become the hat.

 

Step eight:  Once the hat is stitched up, turn it inside out and stitch on the pom pom.

 

Add hat and scarf and you're done.

birds

 

for the bird swap. 

Thanks for all the bird love in the last post.  Magpie Sue's name was the one drawn for the giveaway.  I only did the one in velvet...it's slippery and tricky to sew with so for the birds for the swap I went with my all time favorite and made them with felt. 

I've got a case of the blahs over here.  May have something to do with the fact we haven't seen above freezing temps. even once this month.  Blah.  Anyone have any good remedies?

Birds on the brain

Meg sent me this cutie for Los Calicos Locos ornament swap.

Is it crazy to love a little stuffed creature so much?  Well, I do.  I love him.  And although he is a Christmas ornament, he will stay out all year long.

Ever since he arrived, I've had birds on my brain.  So I've been doing a little bird hand work myself. 

And then I learn that Regina is having a bird swap.  Sounds like fun, but sign-ups end today.  If you're interested, better hurry...go here to check out the rules.  And if you Flickr, she's set up a group there already.

 

   

 

   

She's added a little twist too.  A blog give-away for any participants interested.  Make an extra bird to give away on your blog.  Scheduled for January 20th.  Check back then to see what I'm giving away.  Happy weekend!!

Living Craft

Over the weekend my spring issue of Living Crafts magazine arrived in the mail.  In it, there is a pattern for a Playful Seal. I wasted no time in stitching up this sweet little guy.

The perfect hand work project to work on while I sat on the floor playing scrabble with Peanut.  The pattern for the seal said to enlarge it by two hundred percent, but I prefer to work small, so used the pattern as it was.  As you can see, it's pretty little. 

Another project from the magazine I'd love to try is this beautiful felted scarf.

Maybe one day.

I had such a lovely Mother's Day yesterday.  Peanut made me orange bread (his specialty) for breakfast and then I enjoyed a beautiful afternoon outside with my boys.  We got into a dialogue about moms, and their moms and so on.  To try and help explain I took out this old locket that belonged to my great grandmother.  In it she carried these two photos of my mom.

 

Funny thing trying to explain to my almost four-year-old that "yes...that is Grandma".  Seems he had trouble wrapping his brain around the idea that she was ever such a little girl.

I hope all of you who are involved in mothering had a relaxing and peaceful day yesterday. 

All packed up

Yesterday we celebrated El dia de los tres magos, or Three Kings Day.  It's a big deal in our home as it's the one holiday that truly has meaning for Papa.  Of course, there is quite a huge difference from how we celebrate it here in the Midwest, and how he once used to celebrate it in Barcelona.  His memories of it look more like this, this and this.  We went with the more mellow tradition of putting Peanut's shoes under his bed, filled with hay for the Kings' camels to eat on their journey home.  So when he woke the next morning the Kings had left treats and treasures in his shoes as a "thank you" for the hay.

I thought it would be fun for Papa to get a little treat too so filled these little elf shoes with chocolate for him.

The pattern for these fun little elf clogs came from the very talented Jenny B.

Sadly, January 6th also marks the end of Christmas for us.  I say sadly because I always feel a bit meloncholy when the tree comes down.  I get a little attached to having that little corner of our living room glowing with the soft luster of the white Christmas lights.  But it's time.   

I took some photos of ornaments I made before it all got packed up.  Here are the sweet little stacking trees I stitched up.  Pattern courtesy of The Small Object.

Wool felt and hand stitched.  They were quite quick and easy to make, except when I decided to add "snow".  All those tiny glass seed beads sure took a while to stitch on...

...but it was still completely satisfying to make. 

And finally...when I saw Hillary's free pattern for one of her pull toys, I had one of those "drop everything" moments so I could stitch one up.

Link to the pattern can be found here. 

   

Instead of stitching on felt eyes which I usually do, I simply needle felted them in-it was alot quicker.

Thanks to all the above crafty gals who published these free patterns for us to use.  For next year I have my eye on this adorable fella.