CSI Bear: Assault with Deadly Felting (Contains Images That May Not Be Suitable for All Ages)

You may remember this bear from a previous post, where the victim looked something like this:



















Forensic analysis indicates that the victim was bound using makeshift restraints, and immersed repeatedly in scalding and freezing water, concurrent with repeated, sustained traumatic surface abrasion with a cleaning agent, as can be seen in these crime scene photographs.



















Evidence collected at the scene of the crime suggest that the bear was bound using makeshift restraints and arranged in this pose post-mortem.

Identifying features were obscured due to the violence of the crime, but creative reconstruction rendered these images.





















The bear in question has yet to be identified. Anyone with information about this bear or any other details of this felting incident should leave comments here. The public is warned that the perpetrator is believed to be a repeat felter and should be considered dangerous.

Cast On - cool!

I have just discovered that I can easily download radio shows to my cheap-o little mp3 player! I downloaded the first episode of "Cast On" and listened to most of it on the bus to school today. It was great - a North American woman in Wales doing a periodic show about what is up in the knitting world, including field trips to mills and farms, guest essays, and some really cool new music I'd not heard before! It is wicked cool. Can't remember how long it has been since I've used that phrase.... Check it out here: Cast On
where you can download this and future episodes...

invasion of the teddy bear clones....

I present for your inspection my two latest endeavours in toy/doll making. Both are spooky "blank faced" because I need to find some embroidery floss to do the faces with.

So they are like blank clone cuddlies for now.

I did the bear from a really neat book "The Knitted Teddy Bear"by Sandra Polley. This book has a really cute selection of knitted bear of different types and styles.

The one I did was very simple - the bear was made entirely of rectangles of knitted fabric, the shaping was all as a result of running stitches and knots tied off to shape the various bear bits.

You can't really see it in the picture but he even has a snout.

Now that its done I'm kind of tempted to felt it.... I wonder what would happen? Any ideas?

I don't like the way the arms and legs atach to the body - Ican't really describe what is wrong but it is obvious in the pictures.

This was a simple, beginner bear at any rate, and I finished it in a evening. I want to try something more ambitious, better looking, and with button joints next time.

Also, I finished and felted my schmeebot but he didn't turn out quite the way I wanted. I think I overstuffed him... or something. He is still kind of cute in a maimed way... although in this picture he loooks like roadkill.

I also finished my small and further modiefied "coronet" hat. I added ear flaps, and when I did I wasn't sure if I had made them big enough. So I added a crcheted edgeing to the earflaps, that looks kind of ruffly.

And yes, this soes make Coronet the hat so nice she made it thrice! and then some.

My reluctant model says it all I think...

Oh what a Tangled skein we weave...

I finally did it. Finally went to the LYS (Local Yarn Shop) that would have been mine if I hadn't gotten divorced. Its probably good that this LYS and I just visit each other occasionally. If I had been living next door to it,things could have gotten nasty. And fluffy. A Yarn intervention might have been needed. But happily for us all, the universe unfolded just as it should, thus I and Tangled Skeins became ships that pass in the night ... This is a lovely lovely, and did I mention lovely, yarn shop. The have all the Brown Sheep yarns that I'd read about in Knitty.

So I bought some Lamb's Pride Worsted 85% and15%Mohair, and it makes such a difference. I swear, its like the yarn is alive. It has such beautiful stitch definition, such perfect elasticity. It made 2 hours of sitting in a bus that is moving only slightly faster than you could walk an enjoyable interlude instead of a reason to go starkers and start pulling out my hair.

Tangled Skeins had several versions of the kind of yarn I bought, and a vast arry of others. It is always wonderful to meet "in person" the yarns you have read about in Vogue Knitting or the Knitty website. This is sad isn't it? Its like the yarns are celebrites or something and I am this rabid fan.... They were all nicely displayed, and the lighting and space was lovely. . And when you leave, they put yoour yarn in a lovely sturdy brown bag, perfect for gift giving, cat sleeping or rat housing... If you have not gone and you are located in an area that makes a visit feasible, i tell you GO TO THIS SHOP.
If you can't read it from the bag here is the info:
Tangled Skeins Yarn Shop
158A Portland Street
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
B2Y 1J1
902-464-0387
They don't seem to have a website.

I'm off to enjoy my luxury yarn...

Knitting Toys for Several Species...

I recently knit this bunny doll for Kiera, Lynda and Andy's little girl, and it was a ton of fun! I have a post about it somewhere back in November's archives.

Something about knitting it, while thinking about the games that Kiera might play with it, the fun it might have, which makes you think of your own favourite toys of the past...

Not only that but it seemed to impress people out of all proportion to the accomplishment - I think the thought of knitting something with all those shapes *seems* really hard, though it was really quite simple, knitting, shaping, decreasing increasing - and after all it was quite forgiving of mistakes or "alterations" - it didn't have to fit anyone like a sweater for example!

Now, "hard" knitting - that is lace... or socks. I have made and continue to make attempts, but no real joy so far... don't know if I'm ever goint ot get it together for those!

I also have alot of fun making cat toys, and recently scored a "basement find" of a ball of real grey wool - I just had to make felted cat toys.

The little grey toy is supposed to be a lamb, but as Pierre said it kinda looks more like a clown mouse or something. The white yarn on the lamb is a mystery cheapo acrylic so no felting, hence the odd look of the lamb.

The grey yarn was quick and easy to hand felt in some very hot water (needed rubber gloves) and some shampoo - Not sure why this worked so much more quickly and easily than for example, the Kitty Pi I did with Lopi yarn in the hot cycle of the washer.. Maybe the lopi is slower? Or the water was cooler? Or the washer just doesn't agitate like my rubber glove-ed hand?

With the grey mousie you can see just how much the felting took, with NO stitch visible and quite a thickness gained.

Ranger is always eager to help with the catnip stuffing and the toy testing - so much so that I have to hide the toys I want to give as gifts before they end up looking like something a cat barfed up rather than recieved as a gift.



The great thing about these little toys are they are so quick to make up and so portable, you can slip one right in your pocket and knit anywhere! When you are feeling discouraged about your knitting or about anything in life, it is great to sit down, and in an hour or so finish a complete project. Makes you feel ready to take on the world. Or at least your favourite cat.

The "lamb" is one of a set of barnyard fingerpuppets from this book:

"Knitted Toys" by Fiona McTague. It has alot of cute things in it. The finger puppets I just knit up as directed, then stuff with catnip and sew shut the bottom where the finger would go, and voila! a cat toy! If you wanted to live dangerously you could use it as an actual finger puppet and still use it as a cat toy, but you would be a braver and more foolish woman than me!


I made a fingerpuppet/cat toy for my sisters cats for xmas, out of blue fake mohair, a little blue bunny. It was quite a hit too.

So, does anyone have a favourite toy pattern they'd like to recommend - or favourite toy knitting books?

I like this pattern and have made it again and again for friend's cats...

Free knitted catnip mousie pattern (felted or not felted, its up to you!) by Jo Chandler.

These also look interesting but I've not tried them yet:

A bunny by Jess Hutchison, who designed the toy featured in this issue of Knitty

Dinosaurs (link to a .pdf file bellow pic) including Bronty, Trice and Mr. Stegs, on Jennifer Thurston's X-treme Knitting Blog

Snakes and much more by an interesting knitter who designs and does her own patterns, but does not use conventional patterns or pattern writing at all!

And finally I just realized I HAVE to make one of these, probably with the remaining grey wool...

Schmeebot, an absolutely adorable quirky creation by a blogger who goes by the same name in her blog The Knitting Chronicles - this toy has been called "the cutest out there" by several bloggers I've read.

I'm going to cast schmeebot on now - anyone tried it? Any hints?

Won't you tell me 'bout my mystery yarn...?

(To be sung to the tune of Elvis Costello’s “Mystery Dance”)

…Won’t you tell me ‘bout the mystery yarn,
Won’t you tell me ‘bout the mystery yarn...
Won’t you tell me
‘cause I’ve tried and I’ve tried
and I’m still mystified,
I can’t swatch anymore,
and I’m not satisfied…”

This is one of two odd yarns I got for xmas – the other containing possum fur, and recently knit into the purple “Coronet” hat seen earlier on this blog. The possum fur was labelled though.. This was really oddball stuff – my Mom got it in Newfoundland, and it came on a cone – I’ve never had “cone” yarn before – I think it was remnants of stuff from a mill or something.. anyway.

As you can see I have pulled it off the cone and wound it into a nice loose centre pull ball (for some reason I find doing this immensely satisfying and I don't think I would ever use a ball winder - I will even compulsively wind other people's yarn into balls... I just love the feel of the yarn I guess!)

It may be hard to see in these pictures (my colours always seem a bit off - probably because I always get inspried to snap them in the dark of night in the study with the bad lighting?) but it is an extremely fluffy navy blue, with a bright orange almost brand new copper penny colour cord twisted around it.

The blue yarn seems to be a natural fibre maybe, and the copper most likely a synthetic. The copper also has sporadic bits of coloured yarn trapped in it – this is crazy neon rainbow colours, and seems like little tiny (and not so tiny!) hunks of unspun roving trapped by the copper thread – maybe natural fibre as well.

This swatch was knit up on 4.5mm needles. It is fairly open and loose. It is 20 stitches and stocking stitch except at the top part where I tried drop stitch.

My questions are:

-does anyone know what yarn this is?

-has anyone ever used similar yarn?

-anyone got any idea what to do with this one ball of the stuff? (said 65g on the cone?)

-any ideas or info or suggestions about how to best use this yarn?

I ripped out this swatch and started something on bigger needles 10 mm needles - just a drop stitch sort of thingy to see what a bigger needle would do.

It is nice that it is more open and lacey. The pattern is kind of wonky and I'm not sure if I like it or think it is ugly... anyway its all a test! Let me know your thoughts..

As usual I have a few pictures, trying to get the truest colour and best quality photo - hard when you suck as much as I do as a photographer - even with my fabulous gift digital camera!