Sunday 10 February 2008

Lemur Puppet Patterns and Stuff

Thanks so much for all the lovely comments on the Forest Path Stole. To quickly answer some of the questions:

I think the stole can be made narrower by removing one lace panel from each of the tiers. It would be pretty straightforward with some tweaking of the placement of the panels required (this makes more sense if you are looking at the pattern – honest!).

Making it shorter is very simple, just reduce the number of tiers – and the pattern gives options to do this.

And – errrrr - thanks for the kind offers to let me finish up the hibernating FPS’s out there – but I think I’ll pass for now!!

As often happens when I finish a big project I’m at a bit of a loss about what to tackle next. And my knitting this week reflects that.

The first thing I did was pull out the hibernating Melon Scarf and faff around with some border options. After two or three unsatisfactory attempts I remembered Gen saying before Christmas, “It looks great like it is – I don’t think it needs anything else.” And I looked at it, with non-knitter, non-Victorian Lace Today eyes and saw what she meant.

So I cast it off.







It is a very simple scarf, made just a little bit more special by the sheen of the SeaSilk. Here it is wrapped around a vase of tulips which are meant to imitate my head.

One skein of Handmaiden SeaSilk, pattern from Victorian Lace Today.





Then I turned into a hat machine. This was driven by two factors: a need to knit up some stash yarn, and the fact that the last hat I made which little

Mads claimed as hers does not in fact fit her. While
she’s wearing it, it slowly slides up her head until it is perched precariously on the top of he

r head. Apparently because I made it, she insisted on wearing it anyway. (How cute is she? She wins handknits for life!)

So I pulled out some wool left over from the great poncho
knit-athon of 2004(ish) and started knitting hats.

(The great poncho knit-athon began when I responded to a casual comment from Caroline that she loved a poncho she’d seen in Liberty. “I could make you one” I said. And then Susie, Gen and Mads (who was 5 and had no idea what a poncho was) chimed in with “Could I have one Sooby?” And thus began 2 months of poncho knitting. I didn’t even like ponchos.)

The purple hat and the grey hat with cables are from the Harlot’s ‘Unoriginal Hat’ pattern. The other three are even less original hats made up by me as I went along.

The linen coloured hat was meant to have cables all the way up the hat, but I got distracted and missed the second cable so rather than rip it out I decided to leave the one cable in and call it a design feature. I expect this is how all the great designers work.

While churning out hats I came across some Rowan Big Wool left over from the cardigan I made for Gen for Christmas. Keen to use up more stash I pulled out the Kim Hargreaves Heartfelt book and knit up Cherish for Gen.

However, when I handed it over to Caroline yesterday I got the distinct impression that it might never actually make it to Gen’s wardrobe as Caroline seemed quite taken with it.





The most random project of the week was a request from the Caked Crusader for a jumper for a very old, very worn, and very well loved lemur puppet named Merf. Apparently, Merf was a childhood favourite of the Caked Crusader and her brother and has now been handed down to the Caked Crusader’s nephew. He is showing his age and the Caked Crusader thought a new jumper might spruce him up a bit.

Designing for a lemur puppet took a bit of thought, mostly due to his sticky out arms and lack of a neck. A bit of fiddling around and I came up with the red jumper. Being an overachiever I immediately cast on for the black version. And as an inspired afterthought I crocheted a dapper scarf to be worn with either.

I’d offer to write up the lemur puppet pattern but I don’t expect there’s much demand.

17 comments:

Kate said...

I do like the Melon Scarf without a border. :-) Do you really have tulips growing out of your head? I just have grey hairs growing out of mine. :-P

Anonymous said...

Wow that's a lot of knitting for a week! I love your Melon scarf but am just as in love with the sweater you turned out. I'm in awe of your knitting prowess.

Anonymous said...

I think the scarf is just beautiful as is! It's a stunning colour!

The Caked Crusader said...

Message from Merf Mulpeno:
Thank you for my lovely jumpers, however, there is no need to get personal and tell the world about my less than perfect physique! I forgive you however, as I heard there was talk of a Christmas jumper.....

florencemary said...

You've knitted all that in 8 days?!

I really love Cherish - I hadn't particularly been taken with the pattern until I saw your's...

fleegle said...

Oh my, Soo, tjey are all fabulous, but the melon scard if particularly gorgeous! I am happy you gave the lemur a warm wardrobe, too :)

You've been tagged. (Sorry!) See my blog...

fleegle said...

As far as I could tell, there was nothing weird about me at all. It's everyone else...

cpurl17 said...

All I can do is sigh at all the lovliness.

hetty said...

Nice work. I love your Melon scarf! It's gorgeous!

Robin said...

Soo, you didn't sleep this week, right??? Man, have you been busy! I LOVE the picture of the Melon Scarf around the vase of tulips. Really pretty and would make a great Valentine card for a knitter! I also really like the tan hat with the one cable twist. I can't wait to see what's next.

cinnamongirl93 said...

The scarf is very beautiful. It looks great with the tulips. You sure did knit quite a few hats! I think that the cardigan is amazing. Congratulations on all of the FO so far this year!!!

Yarndancer said...

Wow, everything you've knit is so pretty! (and so is the FPS by the way) :D

Anonymous said...

Excellent knitting, well done you! I have a lemur puppet very similar to that one in my loft in a bag of soft toys that belonged to the kids...it was called a Fluppet or something like that...I feel I should go up there now and rescue him....I'm sure it's very cold in the loft with just a black bag to keep the draught out! There may yet be a market for your sweater pattern...could I have one, I'll make it in a random dye sock yarn...Fran (no blog so anon, not by choice!)

Opal said...

You certainly did become a hat machine! I can't get over how many of them you made up. I love the linen colored one the best, mistake that it was.

The Melon Scarf is just lovely as well. :)

Viknits said...

Did you actually go to work this week?? I love all the hats :)

z's momma said...

The hats are lovely. I'm still working on the one for me (and you've managed to knit how many in a week?!) they are lovely.

I was thinking about knitting a poncho for child 2...now I've got to go and see if you've got pics of the ones you knit (for inspiration).

I like your simple melon a lot.

Moggle said...

Lovely melon shawl. All your other speedy knitting is great too.