Knitting!

So - I've been knitting a lot lately - sometime in September I got the inspiration to knit little animals for three of my nieces for Christmas, and I haven't really looked back!

First I did a bunny. The pattern called for white yarn, but I just couldn't seen that being practical for a 2-year-old who will actually PLAY with it! So a brown bunny it was! It still got pink ears and a cream-colored tail. [More pics & details on Ravelry]

And then it was on to a hippo! This was made of a super-stretch wool. I watched a tense movie while I was knitting the second foot, and it turned out MUCH smaller than the first leg. I re-did it, but I did have to laugh at myself. [More pics & details on Ravelry]

Last but not least were a Mama and Baby Koala. Great fun! They had spiky black claws in the pattern, as well as velcro to enable the arms to attach around each other, but I couldn't seen the velcro staying good for long - and I thought it would ravel the yarn itself eventually. So I made the arms extra long so they could be tied around each other - perfect! [More pics & details on Ravelry]

And then... I thought I should knit some hats. I had the idea of doing one for a Secret Santa exchange I was doing for work, and started making the hat only to realize it was INCREDIBLY detailed and time intensive. So I gave it to my friend Christy instead. When I found that hat pattern, I also ran across the perfect hat pattern for my musical sister, Jody. So I made her a piano hat! That one was an adventure - that pattern required learning stranded knitting - knitting with two colors at the same time. Very fun and a challenge to learn! I was going to give it to her for her birthday in mid-January, but finished it by Christmas and couldn't wait any longer to give it to her! She liked it - hooray!! [More pics & details on Ravelry]