Of elephants and snowflakes

Still no adapter for me, but I *did* discover that I can download pictures from my camera to the lab computer. So now we’re cooking with gas! Lookee what I finished.

Elijah
Pattern: Elijah, from ysolda
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino baby, 1.0001 skeins, light blue, color #202 (I dipped into the second skein only for ear #2–arrugh!)
Needle: US 3 (3.25 mm)
Begun: November 15 (I think)
Finished: December 9, 2007
Recipient: Baby J
Mods: nary a one

Seriously, I changed nothing in this pattern. I just extended my faith and followed the directions religiously. The only thing I did differently was knit with a 3 instead of a 2 like the pattern suggested. I kind of wished I had used a 2, because the knitting isn’t as firm as I’d like for a stuffed animal. It’s kind of funny, because I initially grabbed a set of 2’s, thinking they were my big 2’s (aka 3 mm). I thought the fabric they made was a wee bit too tight, so I just then cast on with 3’s. Well, I found out later that I had in fact used my small 2’s (2.75 mm). So the regular 2’s would have been perfect. Grr. Stupid US sizing! I’ve taken to measuring my dpns with calipers, just to make sure I have the right size. Anyway, isn’t Elijah just the sweetest?

Front and back

I love the way the decreases worked out on the back of his head.

The only complaint I would have about the pattern is how the arms and legs go on. It’s quite clever, but pretty fiddly. Elijah is knit like this: you cast on for the head, and stuff as you go. Then you close it up, and pick up stitches for the body, and knit down. Then you pick up stitches for the arms and legs and knit them, then finally do the ears. It was really hard knitting the arms so close to the head, because my dpn ends kept knocking into the head and each other, and it made me swear quite a bit. Good think I put his ears on last! I also accidentally knit his first ear on upside down, and I didn’t realize it until the last frickin row. The schematic to pick up the ear stitches was kind of misleading. Ysolda has since sent out a correction for that, but I had already figured it out. I went down a needle size when I knit the ears, too, as I didn’t want them to be too floppy.

I think Baby J will love him. I love him. The blub loves him. I’m kind of looking for an excuse to knit another one, but I haven’t found one yet. Although, Ysolda has made a similar pattern for a bunny. Maybe I’ll make that one too, when it gets released.

So this weekend I also made snowflakes and put up the Christmas tree.

How lovely are your branches

It was really hard to get a decent photo of the tree all lit up like that, so you get a crappy one.

And a crappy one of the snowflakes.

Yes, I made those. I hate to brag, but I *do* make the nicest paper snowflakes in the known universe. People always ask me how I do it, and this is what I say.

“I dunno.”

I don’t do anything special, really. I guess the only trick is to make sure you have as much negative space as possible. That way they look more lacy. Those above are for my s’no flake pal, another swap on knitty. I made more for our windows, but I don’t have pictures of them. I made ours out of newspaper. I like working with newsprint better for paper snowflakes, because it’s easier to cut them more intricately. Then I glue them to the windows with rubber cement. No kidding. They stay up better and the glue is really easy to get off when you want to take them down. You just roll your finger over the glue and it comes right off, like a booger. The only bad thing is that you have to rip the snowflakes off the window. But then I just throw them in the recycling bin, and make new ones the next year. Yay, everybody wins!

I just hope it snows again soon. It’s supposed to be 59 F tomorrow. Can you believe that crap?