He’s happy. He’s cute. He’s super happy cute! It’s a finger puppet, only a few inches high (and who knew I had a mossy rock under the bush in my yard? It works out.) and every time I see his little face I just get the biggest grin. Don’t you? I can see a whole series of kawaii super happy cute stuffed toys in my near future.
(I have the notes for this written down, too! Should be a veritable pattern explosion around here next month.)
As we count down to Greg’s impending departure, I find myself increasingly restless. I can’t concentrate enough to read, for instance, or code, or edit patterns. I did write down directions for the cow, by the way; it’s in my notebook. If ever I get my act together I can type it up. Not even TV (unaccompanied by another distraction) is enough to hold my attention. This has resulted in very busy hands, and while I don’t have any pictures of swept floors or washed dishes to show, I do have some crocheting.
I made a necklace yesterday.
Pattern is Crochet Necklace by creativeyarn, with SkaMama’s Crochet Picot Flower. I’m not sure why my petals refused to point at the tips – maybe because I used cotton yarn. The boys ‘helped’ with this, by which I mean ‘played with the button jar until they started fighting and had it taken away.’
What a cutie! Anyway, the necklace is simple and fun (read the directions carefully, though). I omitted the fourth loop, as I thought it looked more balanced with three.
But that’s not all! Last night I also started an extremely random design:
It’s meant to be a cowl or smoke ring. (Nobody say you like it too much, it’s already been frogged. Mostly.) I’m using a ball of Feza Iplik Kid Mohair Multi I bought at Yarnivore – the last time I was there, perhaps? – with some gorgeous color shading. I’m really enjoying the mohair halo, too. It’s much like Kidsilk Haze (not that I’ve used that), but with nylon in lieu of the silk. (Cheaper that way.) Anyway, that’s right, I decided that the pattern I had chosen was too open, and I frogged it. With a great deal of care I was able to unravel everything except the starting chain, which was too badly felted and stuck to itself to be moved. Not bad, I think. As soon as I have some more kid-free time, maybe tonight, I’m going to choose another stitch pattern and try again.
But wait, there’s more! I pulled out a project I was working on just before our move from Texas. It actually traveled with us, instead of getting packed, but hasn’t been worked on too much.
It’s a baby blanket! It’s a round ripple with a sun in the middle – feel free to click on the picture if you prefer an overall view to an ‘artsy’ closeup. 
I’m not sure how big to make it, but it’s something I can pick up and work on without a lot of planning, and it survives the assistance of small hands very well.
That’s all I’ve got at the moment: now if you’ll excuse me, the dirty dishes are making me twitchy.
How now, brown cow?
I made this little cow for Charlie today. He loves cows. Elephants and cows are his two favorite animals. I’m not sure why, but any time he sees a cow, a picture of a cow, a horse, or a giraffe (sometimes zebras) he’ll gleefully exclaim “MOO!” at the top of his little lungs. At first he was more interested in the drawing I made to work off of, but as soon as I put on the eyes he snatched it up and examined it, all the while ‘moo’-ing in fascination. (It was a little tough to get it back from him to attach the ears.)
It was sweet, it was simple, and the cow is cute. My work here is done.