Giant Rabbits sighted at our Lake (not really)

Those rabbits are getting mighty large!


Traffic jam

lake monster!

Busyness, Lions and Bunnies

We've been busy around here, the beginning of the week is always that way lately, which isn't a bad thing at all. We've been looking for more ways to find out what Pixie's medical issue is. I've tried lots of internet groups and forums, even an 'ask the vet' which gave us pretty much the same answer our vet did. It's a tough case considering it isn't tetanus, or at least, it doesn't look like tetanus in any other way yet. We put her x-rays up here. We've had a few good reccommendations -- and if they pan out she might have a chance.

Second lion
It felt like I was tying wool lion mane hair for three hours!

I'm on the fourth version of the lion pattern, lions 1 and 3 didn't survive to be finished. Lion 2 was a little skinny (see above) but he is cute enough for his stuffing ;) Mark says he looks like a surfer dude: 'Like, RAWR... dude.' I'm also working on a very simple rag doll rabbit pattern to work up as a .PDF.

Three little rag doll "bunny rabbit" baby toys at the KnitOwl toy shop

These rabbits take 30 minutes to an hour each from tracing pattern to finishing faces. The hardest part is making sure their legs and arms and ears are in straight. Sometimes when you go to run them under the sewing machine, they move around! These are nice 'I can't sleep' items too, I did one of them at two in the morning last night.

We went to the flea market yesterday and found some interesting vintage finds to list on Ebay and Etsy. Mark found an Underwood typewriter for a steal that still works in most ways -- we're examining it today.

Absentmindedness: I exploded an egg on the stove this morning. Apparently I wasn't that hungry for a boiled egg. Luckily the type of pan it exploded in survived the impact so it wasn't that much of a disaster.

Pregnancy Dreams: Also have been having more and more very 'real' feeling dreams about the baby's delivery. Last night's was pretty scary, and I was glad to wake up. I don't worry about it a lot during the day, so I guess I make up for it at night. We have another doctor's appointment today.

DeeDee's Great Dane Puppies meet the World

It was threatening to thunderstorm tonight so Mark set up a tent in one of the downstairs rooms and lined it with paper to bring DeeDee and her babies inside. After she was settled and comfortable again, he took a few pictures of her and her brood. There are actually EIGHT puppies, one of them a little weak but hanging on. There are three mostly black, three mostly white and two of a grey (merle) colour.




Mark thinks these puppies will be ready to find good homes a little before Christmas. DeeDee is half Great Dane, half Collie (both parents purebred) and we think the puppies were sired by a half-sibling Great Dane who is several years older. We didn't even think she could have puppies, so she was never 'fixed.'

I feel a little guilty about the next announcement, but this is 'Bunny', a female puppy that was given to us in a parking lot last week. The family's dog had twelve puppies and they couldn't keep feeding them. We definitely don't need another dog, with DeeDee giving birth and me pregnant... We were going to try to give this puppy away at the flea market but well.... she's already a GOOD dog. I've taken to her and she has taken to me more than Pixie ever did to either Mark or me... She's already been 'adopted' by Puck and the outside cat, is being watched over by Misha and playing with Pogo.


Bunny and her lizard toy
Just look at those eyes!
She has black spots on her ears and on her lower eyelids, but other than that she is all white with pink ears. She has ridden in the car well (everybody else but Kelba gets sick or can't get their footing) and is starting to line up with the other dogs for 'outside.'

Rabbit Tiles from Tasha McKelvey

They arrived today!
These are for Bazooka as well.
Tasha included not one but two beautiful tiles!
They are made of blue stoneware and her own design. I sent her a picture of my old rabbit tile as an example, and asked her to just make it approximately the same size and her own design.


The old rabbit tile.The blue tile on the left is almost _exactly_ the same size as this one, just small enough to comfortably squeeze in the palm of my hand.

Happy Easter!

Wishing you all safe travel and a happy holiday wherever you are :)

Even more Knit Rabbits...

If you haven't guessed already, I have a 'thing' for rabbits ;o) These little knit ones are very addictive - and the pair has already sold in my Etsy shop! I made the smaller one (only 5 inches tall) out of some of the wool Palette I had sitting on the shelf. It was made with the 14 stitch pattern, but is much tinier than the acrylic 12 and 16 stitch rabbits!

It looks I'm going to get a lot of practice making these little guys!

Please also take a look at my buyable PDF pattern for sewing rag rabbit softie dolls!

Knit a Rabbit

Made on size 3 DPNS, each in two pieces. Knit each piece on 2 needles, using a third for working stitches.
You'll need that fourth DPN needle when working ears and legs!

Head: Start out with (12,14,16) stitches - increase for (2,3,4) rounds, stitch round for (6,8,8) rounds, decrease for several rounds (to an even number), separate for ears, work first ear to end, decreasing to four stitches and drawing yarn through all loops and tying off. Break yarn. Reattach yarn and work second ear as first. Set finished head aside.

Body: Start out with (12,14,16) stitches - increase for (2,3,4) rounds, stitch back and forth on one side for several rows. Break yarn (leave several inches for weaving in), reattach to other side and stitch an equal number of rows for pieces to meet up again. Continue knitting from other needle in round fashion (this will leave two holes on either side of the body for arms to be cast on later... like a mitten thumb. Knit in the round until the body has reached the desired length. Seperate into two equal halves for legs. Work as for ears.

Arms: Cast back on 6-10 stitches on each armhole and work arms as ears.

Finishing: Stuff head and body with yarn clippings. Work in all yarn tails or tie them inside in such a way they will not come loose. Sew head to body with a piece of the project yarn. Use embroidery thread to make happy rabbit faces.

A sweet shot of Puck (the puppy) and Yeller (the outside male cat) playing on the front porch.

Knitting Rabbits

I've been knitting these little rabbits - a pattern I stumbled upon a while back just after making my first mitten. One small rabbit finished, one larger rabbit in progress.




Drawings from this week:


03/06/2007 (night)
The council about the bundle.

03/08/2007 (morning)
Binding up/gating off bad forces

Survey

Survey please! : So - for my shop for Easter should I make... Lots more little handheld rabbits... Some hopkin frogs... or a few of the new rabbits? (still needs some work) What do you think? Help me decide please!

Of course, I could continue making a little of each, since Easter is in April. I'm also getting hit daily in my search results for kangaroos and sloths.. go figure ;o) Maybe I'll do a few batches of them after Easter.

Working on the second knit dishcloth for my mom's birthday present. I have a little chunk of strawberry soap to put in with it. We have new Primus albums and Beethoven's Creatures of Prometheus playing on the overhead stereo in a random mix, and 'The Dark Crystal' and 'The Neverending Story' to watch this weekend.

Fiat Bunny

The Rabbit Prototype (aka Cthulu) is finished!
I'm mostly happy with him. Also happy to announce his resemblance to the demony Elder God (<--Lynn: this links for you) has diminished.


As with all prototypes, there are little places you know can be tweaked in the next one.

His legs especially, while they sit nicely, look a bit funny when held like this.

Lynn asked how much time per day I spend on things like crafting, weaving, drawing etc... That depends on the day. We are usually up near dawn here, and working on all number of things. If I had to estimate - I'd say I probably craft for about four hours a day - but that is spread out through the entire day and in-between other things (like waiting for my machine to reboot into Windows or browsing through submitted news articles for my editing job). There is always time to tie a knot in a new needle of thread - or stitch up an arm or leg while reading.

Weaving is a different matter, though. That I usually 'take time out' for, mostly because the frame is across the room from the comptuer ;o) I haven't been working too much on my dream bag - but I have started the back side of it now.

For the drawing - pattern drawing and little sketches can happen throughout the day as well. I might take a half-hour or hour out later on to listen to some music and make one of my random-line drawings, that start in random scratches on the paper, and end up as many figures with symbols between them.

Also: Sorry to hear Blogger has been so awful lately with the comment verification! *growl* I'll see what I can do about that!


Mouse blisses out while getting petted in a sunbeam.

Rabbit Prototype coming along

Getting ready...
Those back legs might be a problem... we'll see.
I have a headache started today, and there is a tornado watch this afternoon.

Rabbit Prototype in progress...

Link to Visit: Peter Callesen paper cutouts



I guess it does kind of look like Cthulu at this point ;o)
Two legs, two arms and one ear down.. one more ear to go then I can sew it up and see how the body actually works with all these 'dangly bits' included!


Still doesn't look like much...
but more rabbity?