Two more finished

And please don't think I finished them both today,  had them ready for a few days already, but I only had time to post it today!

Chantal

The 'my daddy may have a PhD'-shirts

Well, what do you think of that? Kids always look smarter than their parents! ;-)

Another little project!

Bougth some cheap small towels and attached one of them to the head of an ostrich...

Very happy about the result!

Ostrich pattern from Christel Krukkert.

Tying knots

To make my knots a bit stronger, I usually use the technique we use during surgery.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCk4IfLLHk8
You start with a normal knot, but before you pull the ends, you first pull one of the endings again through the loop. Tighten it and make another normal knot on top of it.

How to hide the end of your thread

Will be translated to English soon!

Een kort filmpje (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLiQAwimmc4) met hoe je de draadjes kunt wegwerken. Ik heb het witte uiteinde weggewerkt, maar je zou ook de andere kant kunnen wegwerken of zelfs allebei.
Het komt erop neer dat je de laatste steek niet afmaakt met je oude draad, maar hier de eerste lus van je nieuwe draad maakt. Dat doe je omdat je door het afmaken van de steek je de volgende v maakt. Als je dus de oude draad gebruikt, zul je altijd een klein streepje in de oude kleur zien.
Vervolgens leg je aan de achterkant een knoop met het uiteinde van de oude draad en het uiteinde van de nieuwe draad. Dan leg je de geknoopte uiteindes op de rij met v-tjes en haak je (zoals normaal) onder de v en boven de v. Zie de foto voor de achterkant.
Denk eraan dat de draad hierdoor wel onzichtbaar is, maar niet extra vast zit. Als je wilt zou je de draad eruit kunnen trekken. Meestal leg ik nog even een druppel textiellijm op de knoop om te voorkomen dat deze los laat.
In het filmpje heb ik stokjes gebruikt, maar het moet ook met vasten kunnen.

Project 3

Picture and movie of the third project! It's a walrus and I've attached a hooklet with a ribbon of 1 cmx5 cm to it, so they attach it to something else.

2 done, 1 to go!

Hair of the pegasus

I think I thought of an solution for the hair of the pegasus somewhere during the night (yes, I have all my best ideas when I'm supposed to be sleeping...). I couldn't get up at that moment to do it, since my bedmate would not really appreciate that, so I had to wait a bit to test it, but I think I quite like the result.

What I did? I took a piece of ribbon and the pieces of yarn that I cut for the hair (about 10 cm) and used the sewing machine to stitch them together. No reason to be very tidy about this as it's inside the head anyway. And you probably want to cut the hair when it's finished anyway, so I didn't pay any attention to the ends either.

That seemed pretty pull-proof, however, as I said I want to make double sure, so I've put some glue on it anyway. Now I just need to wait till it's dry and then I can try and put it in the head.

I'll leave the rest of the ribbon in there, since I need to fill the head up anyway and I can be sure the ribbon doesn't start to fray where the yarn is stitched on it. I will however first pull through the hairs before I'll fill the rest of the head up, so I'll have a bit more space to see it comes out just the way I like it!

three little projects

I've been working on some new projects. But today is not a good day... It started probably with me waking up from our neighbour drilling, but hey, that can happen! I was able to finish the project I started yesterday and I quite like it!

But then I had to go and stand on top of my crochet-needle... So now it's broken. It's not into two pieces, since there is a rubber part that still connects is, but it is a lot less comfortable to work with. So I'll have to order a new one. Really not planned and really not in my budget, but it will have to do. And unfortunately it will take some time before the replacement is here, but it's worth it. I'm using Addi swing, cause all the other 'ergonomic' needles are just a bit too short for my hands. I love them, and thought they were pretty indestructable, but I guess even they cannot take my abuse. ;-)

So back to my projects, I'm making three at the moment, but I suppose more will follow. I have two unknown sexes and one girl with a mommy that has a fancy for pink. So pink it is! I was looking for a pattern that has some pink in it and in the end I picked the cow, since her mommy used to have a mug with a cow on it when we first met at work. I decided white would the best colour for the square thingy that is connected to it. Combined with pink of course. Unfortunately, I have used most of my white on the little snowmen I made for christmas. I usually prefer phildar coton, but since that is really not easly availbale in the UK, I decided to try Drops. I really really love their patterns, so my hopes were up high. But I am very disappointed about the quality of the yarn. I know I keep a tight graps on my yarn, but I'm pretty sure it should not split. Since I make most of my crochet for kids, I'd like them to be of good quality. And I don't want them to be falling apart when they play with it! That why I use safety-eyes and just to be safe additionally glue them as well. No mommy or daddy will have to rush to the hospital with an eye stuck in the kids nose if I can help it! No garantees though, I don't have a kid, so I can't test how destructive they are... Anyway, back to yarn, I am so not satisfied about Drops, I will just have to stock up with Phildar whenever I go to the lowerlands (or have people over :-D).

When R came home I asked him to give me some input on project 3. Asking what kind of animal is sexe-neutral. He decided on a walrus, but also decided that I was not making a cow, but a pink pegasus. Which is still pretty appropriate since mommy loves horses as well. It looks like a great idea, but I still have a problem here. The pegasus has hair... And how will I attach those without the kid pulling them out and eating it? I'm sure eating yarn is not very harmful and it won't be long enough to tie it around anything, but still... I don't like anything that can be detached... I thinking about glueing it, but that will dissolve if you wash it often enough. Any I suppose those little fingers can untie any knot quite quickly. At this moment I'm considering doing both, but if anyone has some input, I'd love that!

A picture of project 1 is attached (it's a turtle). Design of the animals by Maja Hansen, the square is just something I tried (and the square for the pegasus didn't really turn out to be a square). I'll post more pictures when I finish the others as well!