Fireside Boy's Cardi finished

Finally took some pics of a sweater my son requested back in early Spring. When it cools off outside I'll put the buttons on.

Friends, it has pockets!

One reason I tend to crochet toys is he hates wearing sweaters. So when he requested a crocheted sweater, even picking out the yarns and colors from my stash, I got right to it.

Burly Bias necktie.

I winged it (maybe you can tell). It was my first time using basic tunisian crochet stitches for the modified drop sleeves. They feel soft and cozy and drape so nicely! The fun-to-do color pattern was inspired by Stitchdiva's 3-Color Tunisian. Here it is in one of my newest designs, Burly Bias!


The overall silhouette of this sweater makes me think of a '50's summer camp jacket. If there were some orangey or brown tones in place of the white, I think it would look even more so. That's why I'm calling it "Fireside Cardi". (The white ends up giving it a Christmasy look.)

He loves dragons, volcanoes, fiery reds, fireworks, etc. This inspired me to experiment with stitches that might look like spiky flames.

He also loves angora and found a partial ball of Tahki Jolie (the white stripes). It's the same yarn I used for this bunny and this teacher's gift. Not easy to find angora in fiery colors.

Other yarns used are: Karabella Aurora 8, S. Charles Collezione Victoria, Caron Simply Soft, Red Heart Plush, and Lion Brand Wool-Ease.

When Your Kid is the Designer....

....that makes you the contract crocheter! "Bob" drew up a firebunny plan for me to execute (this was 3-4 years ago). He shopped in my stash for firebunny-appropriate yarns. I drew a simple bunny outline. He ok'd the outline and then "designed" it by coloring it in to show me how he wanted the finished bunny to look, based on the available yarns. We ended up going with the top, side view sketch when we realized that he needed to pick a color for the tail.
It was a fun game! I enjoyed the challenge of trying to match his color changes!

I remembered last night that I never blogged about this toy because at bedtime he looked at it affectionately and said, "This is a special bunny. I'm glad you made it for me. I wonder why the ears don't stand up?" (I said, "Because it was the first time I'd ever tried to crochet bunny ears.")

G'morning Peacock Babies!

Seven hatchlings have their first breakfast in the corner of our backyard. Cheerios brought excited sounds from mom and babies. I managed to catch 6 babies in this photo.
Looks like 3 will be white! I don't know if there's a way to tell the girls from the boys yet. Here's a photo of mom's face. Can you find all 4 bebes in this photo?
The round red thing in the center foreground is a peach. These peacocks are dining in the shade of a peach tree and since we don't live in Georgia, these are nowhere near as large as Georgia peaches, but the flavor is outrageous! Concentrated peachiness. The cool thing about peaches fresh off of the tree is that the fuzz is warm and dry, and if you smother them in heavy cream, there's something about the fuzz that turns the cream into thickened "clotted" cream in 5 minutes or so. It seems more like a chemical reaction than a simple fiber thickening and it doesn't happen if the peach is rinsed or storebought.

None of this has anything to do with crocheted toys....yet....