A very huggable hedgehog :)

Today this adorable little guy showed up at our house:

He really should be hibernating this time of year, but for some reason he decided to visit me instead :) I'm very happy he did, although I don't think I'll have much time to take care of him just yet. Not to worry, though, The Great Boll has promised to look after him while I study for my exams :) I'm sure they will be best friends in no time!

The pattern is from Fiber Trends, designed by Debbie Radtke. It is really easy to knit (garter stitch all the way!), but you need to keep careful track of your rows. I made many mistakes with this one, but the great thing about felting is that it hides all such small mistakes :)

By the way, it takes quite a lot of stuffing for these hedgies, this 225gram bag of fine polyester stuffing was barely touched when I started! I think the next hedgies I make will have to be a lot smaller to save stuffing and money :)

Dragonflies

For some reason I just love dragonflies :) They are sort of primitive and a little creepy, and really cool with their two sets of indepentent wings. And they're so insanely old, they appeared millions and millions of years ago, way before the dinosaurs :) In Norwegian a dragonfly is called "øyenstikker", which means "eye poker" or "eye stinger". Not sure why, they don't fly into people's eyes much.

Some years ago I bought a book by Ingrid Moras about making animals of beads and metal wire. The book is called Perledyr in Norwegian ("Beaded animals", the original is German: Perlentiere), and the first thing I made from it was a blue dragonfly. Since then I've made almost two dozen of them, all in different colors. These two are my favorites:

Aren't they lovely? I especially like the purple one. 

I just realized that today is the first Sunday of Advent, and I don't have anything "adventy" to show you.. I kind of had plans to use my blog as some sort of advent calendar, but the next week will unfortunately be very busy for me, so I doubt I will have time to post very often. My last exam is December 7th, so after that I will try to catch up and share some Christmasy things :)

A little Christmas ornament :)

Feeling a bit under the weather today, or however the expression goes. Earlier I thought I was just hung over from yesterday's wine, but now I've got a sore throat and I'm a little dizzy.. Hope I'm not coming down with the flu or anything, I don't have time for that. I guess it's just the post-exam thing (*knock knock*), you know, because I've been so anxious about the exam the last days, and now it's all over and I'm relaxing again.

I have not began studying yet, as I should have done, instead I've made these cute little felt skates. You can find the pattern for them here :)

They should be a lot bigger, but I couldn't find the right kind of paper clips that size or color (they should be rounded and silver), so I had to shrink the pattern a lot to make them fit a regular size paper clip. They're so tiny (only 3cm tall!) I didn't even need stuffing, I just used about 5cm of white scrap yarn :) I really enjoyed making these, I realized that I miss making stuff of felt. I used to make lots of animals a few years ago, before I discovered knitting and crocheting, but now I haven't done it for ages. I want to make a pink pair of skates, and then maybe some other Christmas ornaments :)

One down...

Just two exams to go :) I've been dreading the computer linguistics exam all year, but now it's finally finished! It didn't go straight to hell, as I though it would when I first got the exam sheet, but I might be hovering somewhere around the outer gates... I sat there and looked at the questions and doodled for five minutes before I began to understand the questions.. Still, I think I answered four of the eight questions pretty well, two of them okay, and the last two were utter crap. I don't know what XML is, and I hope I will never have to use it. Hmpf... But, now it's all over, and I don't think I have to take the exam again next year, so now I can relax and do more fun things for a few days. My next exam is on Wednesday, so I guess tomorrow it's back to studying. Tonight it's crocheting, red wine and blogging :)

A few days ago a new owlet was hatched, meet Igor the Eagle owl:

Isn't he cute? I will keep him all for myself, and he'll be roosting with Suzy and Tony in the window :)

Christmas give-away!

From today (November 25th) to 25th of December, Tygra Beaumont has a give-away on her blog, to celebrate the opening of her Etsy shop :) The prize is one of these very cute felt plushies! Click on her name to get to the give-away.

The rules to compete are:

1) Add her blog on your favourite blog's list
2) Follow her blog on the right sidebar
3) Make a little post with the link of this Giveaway on your blog

I'm hoping to win the little reindeer, he's so cute :) Good luck, people!

UPDATE: Just wanted to mention that the ending date of this give-away has changed from the 25th to the 15th of December!

A little treat for me :)

When I was out shopping for a few Christmas presents today I finally found a book I've been looking for for a long time, and I just had to buy it. With the excuse that I need it to finish up some other presents :) The real reason is that I need something to keep my spirit up, because my final exam in computer linguistics is on Thursday. I hope I pass, but I don't have much higher hopes than that... I'll post something on Thursday to let you know how it went.

The original title of the book is The Crochet Stitch Bible by Betty Barnden, but my copy is in Norwegian (called Hekling - ABC for hekleentusiaster). It has all the crochet stitches I will ever need to know (I think), and even a whole chapter on Tunisian crochet :) For my boyfriend I got som black wax seals, and I also bought a ball of pink yarn to finish the Clanger I'm making for my mother :)

Itsy Bitsy Spider...

No longer lives in our home, because my boyfriend killed him! But do not think I'm unhappy about it, because I'm not. I hate spiders and can barely think about them without shivering. I just read that they can grow up to 10cm! (According to Wikipedia they can actually get as big as 20cm, but only in warmer countries.) That's just insane.. A friend of mine once told me about a spider of the same kind that she found in her apartment, and it was so huge that she thought it might be the neighbor's tarantula! I didn't really believe her until I read about the spiders in the news (well, I had my bf read the article, because I couldn't look at the pictures). It doesn't have a name, but it's sort of the European common house spider, brown and kind of long, with something that looks like horns... Gah! *retching*

The other day I found a huge spider in the doorframe between the kitchen and the hallway, and I called my boyfriend so that he could remove it. I won't get near the horrible eight-legged beasts.. *brr* Anyway, he got on the floor and tried to catch the spider with a cup and a piece of paper, but the spider suddenly ran off, and he squished it with the cup. Haha.. I have always comlained about him throwing the spiders out instead of killing them, because I can swear that the damn creatures find their way back in the house again. So, I'm quite pleased with the outcome this time :) I absolutely hate them and wish they would keep away from me forever (but they shouldn't be exterminated, though, because then we would be overrun with flies).. The only spider I willingly let in my house is this one:

It's actually kind of cute. I found it in a gadgetshop in London some years ago and just had to buy it :) In case you can't see it, it's a clock! The web is the actual clock and the spider is just decoration :)

Okay, if you are related to me in any way, don't read this!

It's about your Christmas presents, you see... Not that I think any of my family reads this blog anyway, they don't usually read English stuff. However, my mother checks my Flickr page now and then, so it's best to be on the safe side. It would be bad to ruin the surprises. First, a few non-present projects:

A crocheted gingerbread house. It's tiny, only 7cm high and 8cm long! The house itself is actually Tunisian crochet, because I want the walls to be as thick and sturdy as possible. Not quite sure I succeeded, it looks kind of floppy. Maybe I need cardboard walls after all. I guess I'll see after I crochet some snow and decorations and a bottom for the house. I got the idea to make the house from Pysselkiisen's blog, where she posted a pattern for a crocheted gingerbread house. You can see the original pattern for the house here (in Swedish) :)

Another thing I've been working on lately are these tiny Tunisian crochet coin purses. To be honest I just wanted to try out some color combinations, but I have no patience for making stuff for no purpose. Today I sewed one together and put a button on and everything :) *Proud* I think I've said it before, but I hate sewing on buttons. Anyway, I'm quite pleased with them :)

This is the second attempt at the wristwarmers for my cousin, and this time they are big enough to be felted. However, I'm not sure I want to give them away, as I found another pattern I'd like to try. You can see the pattern here (also in Swedish). I want to make them in black and white, possibly with mohair instead of regular yarn.

Finally I have also started to knit a Clanger (this is the nose) for my mother. In case you don't know, The Clangers is an animated TV series made in the seventies, about some pink (knitted) aliens on a blue planet, and they whistle when they talk. Very cute :) I am too young to have seen them on TV, but my mother watched the show when she was little, and she remembers them. I'm not sure if she knows that they are pink, because in Norway the show was aired in black and white, at least the first episodes. So now I'm knitting a Clanger from a pattern I found here, and I have ordered the complete series on dvd to give my mother for Christmas :) I feel like I've been quite inventive with some of the presents this year, I hope I can keep it up for the rest of the family.

Crocheted scarf and Tunisian crochet purse

Really pleased with myself today, I actually finished two projects without starting a new one in between! I should have read 20 pages about ancient Indian literature, but I will catch up tomorrow instead.. Anyway, two Christmas presents down, a few more to go :) I plan to make a lot of the Christmas presents, as I don't have a lot of money, and this year no one seems to want anything. Home made stuff is always a hit :)

The crocheted scarf I started about five days ago is now hanging to dry and smells really awful. I always forget how bad wet wool smells, it surprises me just as much every time I pull something out of the washing machine... Here is how it turned out:

It is symmetrical, so it's twice as long as this and identical stripes on the other end...

As I might have mentioned earlier when I tried out different techniques in Tunisian crochet, I feared that the 3-color change could be addictive. It was. I picked out some green yarn and started crocheting, not really knowing what I wanted to make. It turned out to be a purse, which I think will work well as a case/purse for my grandmother's glasses. Green is really her color. I'm quite happy with the button I found, it's cute. I think maybe I got it from my grandmother's collection, so now she'll get it back :p I'm worried the case is a little big, though, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Finally I've started a pair of wristwarmers for my youngest cousin, from this pattern by Crochet Kitten, in wool and mohair like the scarf (and they will be felted, even if that's not in the pattern). The one I've started looks like it will be too small, so I'll have to try again tomorrow...

Tunisian crochet

Not sure why, but when I woke up this morning with a pretty mean hangover from the wine last night, I just had to figure out how to do Tunisian crochet! I have done it once before, in high school, but when I tried it again a couple of years ago, I had forgotten. So, way too early in the morning, onto the internet I went and found two pretty good tutorials. This has good written explatations and a few, but clear pictures. The only drawback is that it includes few types of stitches and does not explain how to increase/decrease. This one, however, has other stitch types, increase/decrease and everything, but I find it a little messy and crowded with pictures. It also has links to other sites and video tutorials. None of these two sites are complete with everything you need to know about Tunisian crochet, so I would check out both of them. They are more than good enough to get you started, though :)

I have not yet found any good (and free) patterns for making anything other than coasters and potholders, so I guess I'll have to make something up for myself. So far I have made this little test, practicing color changes and different stitches. The colors are a bit grim, but as I am very lazy today I just grabbed whatever was closest.. That lumpy part in the middle is made with double stitches and the rest is simple stitches. I really love the three-color change, I have to make more stuff with it, but with better colors :) I don't have a Tunisian crochet hook, so I just used a regular straight crochet hook. It worked just fine, but I can't make anything wider than 20 stitches.. We'll see, maybe I run out and buy a proper hook some time next week.

Hot pink, black and rusty brown. Very nice :p

Owlet keychains and a scarf in the making

I have finally gotten around to buying some new key rings after the last ones disappeared, and four owlet keychains/bag charms are now finished. Tada!

I have about four more waiting to get done, but they will have to wait a little longer. Last night I started this crocheted scarf, because I wanted to make something so easy I didn't have to think or count :p Right now it's about 25cm wide, but I plan on felting it, and hopefully it will stay human-sized and not shrink too much :) It's crocheted with one strand of  pure wool yarn (different shades of brown to make stripes) and one strand of white mohair.

I planned on giving the scarf away for Christmas, but now it looks like our new friend has claimed it as his own. I can't blame him, though, he barely survived the last ice age, so he wants to be prepared for the next one! You just have to love him :)

Contest!

The blog Elsas Pärldjur ("Elsa's beaded animals") has a contest, and the prize is this cute little beaded fox :)

Leave a comment on the post for one ticket and put a link on your own blog for another ticket :)

The contest ends on November 26th.

HOOT HOOT

The last two or three days I have been making these little cuties, I have ten of them now. Not all are finished yet, because I'm still trying to figure out how to attach the ring or chain to make them into keychains or bag charms. I know I bought some keychains a few weeks ago, but now I can't find them. Typical. I have also used all ten pairs of orange 18mm safety eyes, and have to wait for a new batch to arrive in the mail. Ordered some today, so maybe by the end of next week? Hoping, hoping... 

The colorful ones will be sold next summer (I've got permission!) on a local fair at home, where a lot of people sell their work (all kinds of crafting, my mother sells mostly knitted doll's clothes and my grandmother makes dishcloths and doilies), and I hope people will buy some :) Not that I am planning to make great profit from the sale, but it's fun, and just a little money also helps a poor student's economy in the summer :D I think I'll keep the duller and more "realistic" owls for myself for now, they will probably be roosting in our livingroom window :) Meet Tony the Tawny owl and Suzy the Snowy owl:

By the way, the pattern is the Owlets pattern by Roman Sock. It also exists as a knitting pattern, found here :) Oh, I have also finished two of the new cupcakes and will try to post the pattern tomorrow :)

Ice cream cone pattern :)

The pattern for this ice cream toy is now posted on my other blog, you can find it HERE :)

I know it's a little out of season, but I came up with the idea and wanted to try it. That's just how I am, I just have to do something with my ideas right away or I get frustrated.. Anyway, I think the top scoop kind of looks like Frankenstein's monster, so maybe it's a little in season after all :p

I have also posted a little tutorial on how to make a rattle from bells and Kinder-eggs, found here if you should be interested :)