Stegosaurus

I have to say, with this weekend`s project (which I found here: http://jwgh.livejournal.com/475358.html) I have entered the dangerous territory of knitted dinosaurs - Gregory already picked a T-Rex as the next candidate for my to-do list. So the fruit bowl is on hold for the moment, since the last update I`ve only made a lemon and a tangerine - of these I don`t have a picture at present but here`s the "steg":

Oh, and a totally unrelated subject: Gregory`s lost yet another tooth on Saturday, the second one within ten days - if it goes on like this, the Tooth Fairy`ll go bankrupt! :)

first encounter of the DPN kind

The major story of this day: Bigyi, who was lost, has been found! The silly fluffless bear disappeared last night (on account of being thrown about in the garden, where he managed to disappear in the hedge). I`m half-asleep while I`m writing this, since we looked for him till about half past eleven last night, but the main thing is that this morning Bigyi finally reappeared, with not a scratch on, so Gregory`s world is a happy, safe place once more. Elsewhere, in the normal (?!?) world, thanks to a lovely visit from a friend of mine, I had my baptism of fire with the dreaded double-pointed needles. So far I avoided any knitting pattern that involved these and tried to opt for the "flat" version, made with straight needles - like the closed banana on the second picture below. But thanks to Jo`s tutorial, now I have knitted my very first item "in the round", a peeled banana! Yay!

The fruit bowl is coming along nicely, by the way: now I have an open and a closed banana, plus a slice of watermelon:

EDF Energy`s ZINGY

This week the Little Man`s "all time favourite EVER" is the EDF Energy advert, where Zingy`s first all sad behind the rainy window, then gets uber-cheerful and dances in the birdbath. Gregory finds it hilarious, so much so that he just got home from school but we already had to watch the ad 3 times on YouTube. So how did I spend the day, instead of cleaning the house? I knitted a Zingy for my son, of course! And what was his first reaction? "This is pink, not orange..." Well, I guess it`s time I stocked up on some more shades of yarn - then maybe I can make a Zingy #2...

another pear and a Rudolph

Just a quick post (while Blogger`s still working, ha!) to show you yesterday`s crop: another wee pear for my never-rotting fruit bowl and a Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer head Christmas decoration (don`t ask me why!):

new project(s)

A few days ago (on Thursday, 17 May 2012, to be exact) I started on La Scapigliata (`The Tousled One`) by Leonardo Da Vinci - or, in this case, by Maria Diaz, since she designed the cross stitch pattern I`m working from. Here`s the original:

And this is where I am just now:

Not too impressive yet, I know, but 1. I`m working on evenweave, which to me always means slower progress then aida, and 2. in the evenings I`m knitting wee projects so that by the end of the day I can feel that I accomplished something. At the moment I`m knitting a fruit a day: I found the patterns in the June 2012 issue of Knit Today for this pear and apple, and following Gregory`s suggestion, I`m going to create my own patterns for other fruits as well (next on my agenda is an orange). I thought I`d create a never-rotting fruit bowl as a centrepiece for my table. Updates to follow!

Celtic birds - finished!

Today, the 16th of May, 2012 is a special day for 2 things: 1. Gregory has lost another tooth (which reminds me: one pound off housekeeping money to reimburse Tooth Fairy...), and 2. I finally finished the Celtic bird cushion that I started months and months ago, although in fact I only worked roughly 10 days on it in total. Now all that`s left to do is to turn it into a cushion but I have plenty time for that, since I decided to give it to my mother-in-law for Christmas. And here`s the last photo that looks like all the previous eight (I promise I won`t post any more of it):

coastal fridgies

Here are the first four of my Coastal Fridgies series (4x5 cm fridge magnets worked on plastic canvas):

Mothers` Day prezzies

I`m writing this on 30 March, the day before we`re going on holiday, but just in case my husband wipes our computer (again) while we`re away, I thought I`d better save these pictures that I promised ages ago. So here are the presents I made for my Mum and my Gran for Mothers` Day, which in Hungary is the first Sunday in May. For my Mum I made a new glasses case to replace her old, tatty one; it`s my own design, based on the eye chart you have to read at the optician`s (the letters make the word GLASSES CASE in Hungarian).

And for my Granny I made a bell pull, not that she`s got any bells to pull in her house, but because I had this mini-doweling and some patterns for alpine flowers that I thought she`d like. In other words, it is something she can hang on her wall but it`s not the traditional framed picture either. I can`t wait to find out what she thinks of it!

another wee flower

Since I`ve been patting my own back for the past hour, I thought I`d better share it with the rest of the world: I`ve finished the 25 cards! Although I can`t post pictures for another month, the main thing is that they`re done - now I just have to cross my fingers/toes so that they won`t get lost in the post. I`m so happy that I thought I`d "surprise" myself with another knitted flower - here it is:

Elsewhere, in the crazy world of our teddies: I can report that our Bigyi family is growing, thanks to the two new Ikea bears we found at a car boot sale on Saturday (plus there`s an "honorary Bigyi" with the blue T-shirt on, he`s the baby):

little knitted flower

The cross stitch related posts are still on hold but in the meantime, here`s a little flower I knitted last night while watching Midsomer Murders (it was the one with the orchids AGAIN, I mean, why? How many more times?), anyway, here`s the pic:

Earlier yesterday I registered on the Let`s Knit Magazine website, and that`s where I found this 5-petal flower pattern, free to download. It`s supposed to be a brooch but I crocheted a wee brown strap and put the flower on a keyring instead. Actually, this little flower represents my (almost) ultimate crafting dream: a bit of knitting, a bit of crochet, a few stitches with a needle, and in just a couple of hours you`ve created something that`s not only pleasing to the eye but useful as well. What more could you ask for? I know, I know... something to do with CROSS STITCH, for crying out loud! Actually, I`ve been toying with the idea of stitching Da Vinci`s La Scapigliata by my favourite designer, Maria Diaz - maybe I`ll give it a go just so that I could FINALLY put some photos up here of cross stitched stuff... Mind you, my Celtic birds are not finished yet, either... Hmmmm, decisions, decisions - and all the while I have stupid cards to mass-produce, arghhhh!

just call me Miss Organised

I know that it has not much to do with cross stitch AGAIN but the xstitching I`m doing these days is top secret, i.e. I can`t post photos until my Mum hands them over to the recipients (for those who don`t know what I`m talking about - and that includes me - I can leak this info: my Mum`s retiring and she wants to give some farewell present to her colleagues (ALL of them!) and this means I have to stitch 25 identical cards). I`ve been working on these for almost 2 weeks now and have only 10 more to go but if I`m honest, I can barely look at the design now - and it`s my own too! Anyhoo, the past couple of days I made this as a let-me-get-away-from-the-cards project:

"Oh, very nice... but what is it?", I hear you ask. Well, let me unroll it for you:

Ta-dah! It`s a knitting needle and crochet hook holder, based on the chefy-knify-thingy idea - now is that anal or what?